DAsI FOE, or, as he subsequently styled himself (though at what
time and on what occasion is not known), De Foe, was born in the
parish of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, London, in the year 1661. The
earliest of his ancestors of whom there is any account, was Daniel
Foe, a yeoman, who farmed his own estate at Elton, in Northampton-
shire. He maintained a pack of hounds; from whence it maybe
reasonably inferred that his means were above competency. A custom
of the times in bestowing party names on brutes is thus mentioned by
our author. I remember," he says, "my grandfather had a hunts-
man that used the same familiarity with his dogs; and he had his
Roundhead, and his Cavalier, and his Goring, and his Waller, and all
the generals of both armies were hounds in his pack; till the times
turning, the old gentleman was fain to scatter his pack, and make
them up of more dog-like surnames." It is from his grandfather that
De Foe is supposed to have inherited landed property: for in his
" Review," a work we shall often have occasion to consult, he says,
"I have both a native and an acquired right of election." Our
author's father, James Foe, followed the trade of butcher, in St. Giles's,
Cripplegate: and these few barren facts are all that is to be gathered
of the ancestors of Daniel De Foe. "He had," says Mr. Wilson, in
his excellent work, The Life and Times of Daniel De Foe," a work
abounding with the most curious and minute information on the
period of which it treats-" He had some collateral relatives, to whom
he alludes occasionally in his writings, but with too much brevity to
ascrtain the degree of kindred."
At an early age, De Foe is said to have shown that vivacity of
humour, and that indomitable spirit of independence, that remained
with him through after life, "making a sunshine in the shady place "
of a prison, and arming him as the champion of truth in humanity in
the most perilous times. An anecdote related by our author is illus-
trative of the discipline that governed the home of his boyhood.
During that part of the reign of Charles II. when the nation feared
the ascendancy of Popery, and it was expected that printed Bibles
1

MEMOIB OF DE FOE.
would become rare, many honest people employed themselves in
copying the Bible into short-hand. To this task, young De Foe applied
himself; and he tells us that "he worked like a horse till he had
written out the whole of the Pentateuch, when he grew so tired that
he was willing to risk the rest." The parents of De Foe were non-
conformists, and his education was consonant to the practice of that
faith. Family religion formed an essential part of its discipline; and
it was made matter of conscience to instruct the children of a family
and its dependents in their social, moral, and religious duties.
Although the enemies of De Foe vainly endeavoured to sink his
reputation by representing him as having been bred a tradesman,
there is ample evidence to prove that he was originally intended for
one of the learned professions." When he had, therefore, sufficiently
qualified under inferior tutors, he was, at about fourteen years of age,
placed in an academy at Newington Green, under the direction of
"that polite and profound scholar," the Reverend Charles Morton,
who was subsequently defended by his pupil, some aspersions having
been cast upon the character of the master by an ungrateful scholar
who had deserted to the church. De Foe writes, I must do that
learned gentleman's memory the justice to afirm, that neither in his
system of politics, government, and discipline, nor in any other of
the exercises of that school, was there anything taught or en-
couraged that was antimonarchical or destructive to the constitution
of England."
Of De Foe's progress under AMr. Morton, it is impossible now to
speak with any certainty. He tells us in one of his "Reviews" that
he had been master of five lai:nr.ges, and that he had studied the
mathematics, natural philosophy, logic, geography, and history: he was
one of the few who, in those days, studied politics as a science. He
went through a complete course of theology, and his knowledge of
ecclesiatical history was also considerable. He was, however,
attacked by party malice as "an illiterate person without education."
To this he calmly makes answer :-" Those gentlemen who reproach
my learning to applaud their own, shall have it proved that I have
more learning than either of them-because I have more manners."
He adds, "I think I owe this justice to my excellent father still living
(1705), and in whose behalf I fully testify, that if I am a lockhead,
it is nobody's fault but my own." He proceeds to challenge his
slanderer to translate with me any Latin, French and Italian author,
and after that to retranslate them crossways, for twenty pounds each
book; and by this he shall have an opportunity to show the world
It is not often," says De Foe, .n his Review, vi. 341, that I trouble you
with any of my divinity; the pulpit is none of my office. It was my disaster
firstto be set apart for, and then to be set apart from, the honour of that sacred
employ."

MEMOIR OF DE roS.
how much De Foe, the hosier, is inferior in learning to Mr. Tutchin,
the gentleman."
At one-and-twenty, De Foe commenced the perilous trade-most
perilous in his day-of author; at the which he laboured through
good and through evil report, with lasting honour to himself, and
enduring benefit to mankind, for half a century. It is now ascer-
tained that De Foe's first publication was a lampooning answer to
" L'Estrange's Guide to the Inferior Clergy," and bore the following
quaint title:-" Speculum Crape-Gownorum; or, a Looking-Glass for
the YoungAcademicks new Foyl'd; with Reflections on some of the late
High Flown Sermons: to which is added, an Essay towards a Sermon of
the Newest Fashion. By a Guide to the Inferiour Clergie. Ridentem
discere Verum Quis Vetat. London: printed for E. Rydal. 1682."
This title De Foe borrowed from the crape gowns then usually worn
by the inferior clergy; and in the book, he fights the fight Uf the
Dissenters against what he terms the libels of the established clergy.
" The fertility of the subject," says Mr. Wilson, soon produced a
second part of the 'Speculum;' in which the author deals more
seriously with the government, and by a practical view of the effect
of persecution, exposed its absurdity."
We have entered more at length into the nature and purpose of
De Foe's first book, than will be permitted to us by our limits to do
with each of the works that now followed, in rapid profusion, from
the pen of our author. All that we purpose to ourselves is, to give
the strongest outlines of his character,-the principal events of his
career: and, avoiding on one hand a jejune brevity, that confines
itself to mere dates, attempt not, on the other side, a minute descrip-
tion of events incompatible with our present object.
When the duke of Monmouth landed at Lyme, De Foe was among
those who joined the standard of the hapless nobleman. A romantic
kind of invasion," says Welwood, "and scarcely paralleled in his-
tory." At the age of four-and-twenty, we see De Foe, the author of
"Robinson Crusoe," a soldier; as ready with his sword as prompt
with his pen, in the cause of rational liberty. Of Monmouth, De
Foe seems to have had some previous knowledge, having often seen
him at Aylesbury races, where the duke rode his own horses, a cir-
cumstance alluded to by our author in his "Tour." De Foe had the
good fortune to escape the vengeance visited upon so many of the
duke's supporters, and returned in safety to London; where, leaving
the stormy region of politics, he now directed his attention to trade.
The nature of his business has been variously represented. In several
publications of the time, he is styled a hosierr;" but, if we may
believe his own account, he was a hose-factor, or, the middle-man
between the manufacturer and the retail-dealer. This agency concern
he carried on for some years, in Freeman's-court, Cornhill; Mr.
3

MEMOIR OF DE FOI.
Chalmers says, from 1685 to 1695. On the 26th of January, 16S7-8,
having claimed his freedom by birth, he was admitted a liveryman
of London. In the Chamberlain's book, his name was written
"Daniel Foe."
When the Revolution took place, De Foe was a resident in Tooting,
in Surrey, where he was the first person who attempted to form the
Dissenters in the neighbourhood into a regular congregation. De Foe
was for many years a resident in this part of Surrey; it is likely that
he had a country-house there during the time that he carried on his
hose-agency in Cornhill. De Foe was one of the most ardent wor-
shippers of the Revolution: he annually commemorated the 4th of
November as a day of deliverance. "A day," says he, "famous on
various accounts, and every one of them dear to Britons who love
their country, value the Protestant interest, or have an aversion to
tyranny and oppression. On this day, he (King William) was born;
on this day, he married the daughter of England; and on this day,
he rescued the nation from a bondage worse than that of Egypt; a
bondage of soul, as well as bodily servitude; a slavery to the ambition
and raging lust of a generation set on fire by pride, avarice, cruelty,
and blood" In order to do honour to the king, and add to the
splendour of the procession, on the royal visit to Guildhall, many of
the citizens volunteered to attend William as a guard of honour on
the occasion. Among these was Daniel De Foe.
The commercial speculations of our author, though at the first
prosperous, were ultimately unsuccessful. That they were of a
various character, is evident from the fact of his having engaged with
partners in the Spanish and Portuguese trade. It is very clear, from
a passage in his "Review," that he had been a merchant-adventurer.
In the number for January 27, 1711, he alludes to an old Spanish
proverb, "which," says he, "I learnt when I was in that country."
It further appears, that while residing there, he made himself a
master of the language. De Foe's losses by shipwreck appear to
have been very considerable. The occupations of trade, however,
according to De Foe's own confession, assort ill with literary feelings.
"Awit turned tradesman!" he exclaims; no "apron-strings will hold
him: 'tis in vain to lock him in behind the counter, he's gone in a
moment." He concludes:-"A statute of bankrupt is his Exeznt
Omnes, and he generally speaks the epilogue in the Fleet Prison or
Mint."
In allusion to the misfortunes of our author, lAr. Chalmers
observes:-"With the usual imprudence of genius, he was carried
into companies who were gratified by his wit. He spent those hours
with a small society for the cultivation of polite learning, which he
ought to have employed in the calculations of the counting-house;
and, being obliged to abscond from his creditors in 1692, lie naturally
4

MEMOIR OF DE FOE.
attributed those misfortunes to the war, which were probably owing
to his own misconduct. An angry creditor took out a commission of
bankruptcy, which was soon superseded, on the petition of those to
whom he was most indebted, who accepted a composition on his
single bond. This he punctually paid, by the efforts of unweariea
diligence; but some of these creditors, who had been thus satisfied,
falling afterwards into distress themselves, De Foe voluntarily paid
them their whole claim, being then in rising circumstances, in con-
sequence of King William's favour." De Foe, being subsequently
reproached by Lord Haversham for mercenary conduct, he tells him,
in 1705, that, "with a numerous family, and no help but his own
industry, he had forced his way, with undiscouraged diligence,
through a set of misfortunes, and reduced his debts, exclusive of
composition, from seventeen thousand to less than five thousand
pounds."
It deserves to be remembered that, in the time of De Foe, our laws
against bankrupts were as inhuman as they were foolish. "The
cruelty of our laws against debtors," says De Foe, without distinc-
tion of honest or dishonest, is the shame of our nation. I am per-
suaded, the honestest man in England, when by necessity he is com-
pelled to break, will early fly out of the kingdom rather than submit.
To stay here, this is the consequence: as soon as he breaks, he is
proscribed as a criminal, and has thirty to sixty days to surrender
both himself and all that he has to his creditors. If he fails to do it,
he has nothing before him but the gallows, without benefit of clergy;
if he surrenders, he is not sure but he shall be thrown into gaol for
life by the commissioners, only on pretence that they doubt his oath!
Whiat must the man do?" We have reformed a great deal of this
in our days, yet something remains undone, for the bankrupt is
still too much left at the mercy of the malevolent or ignorant
creditor.
It is certain that De Foe, whilst under apprehension from his cre-
ditors, resided some time at Bristol. "A friend of mine in that city,"
says Mr. Wilson, "informs me that one of his ancestors remembered
De Foe, and sometimes saw him walking in the streets of Bristol,
accoutred in the fashion of the times, with a fine flowing wig, lace
ruffles, and a sword by his side: also, that he there obtained the name
of 'the Sunday gentleman,' because, through fear of the bailiffs, he
did not dare to appear in public upon any other day." De Foe was
wont to visit The Red Lion," kept by one Mark Watkins, who, in
after times, used to entertain his company with an account of a sin-
gular personage, who made his appearance in Bristol, clothed in goat-
skins, in which dress he was in the habit of walking the streets, and
went by the name of Alexander Selkirk, or Robinson Crusoe! It
was during this retreat from London that De Foe wrote his celebrated
5

MEMOIR OF DE POZ.
"Essay upon Projects," though he did not publish it until nearly five
years afterwards.
It appears that at this time De Foe was invited, by some merchants
of his acquaintance residing in Cadiz, to settle in Spain, with the
offer of a good commission: "but," says our author, "Providence,
which had other work for me to do, placed a secret aversion in my
mind to quitting England upon any account, and made me refuse the
best offer of that kind, to be concerned with some eminent persons at
home, in proposing ways and means to the government for raising
money to supply the occasion of the war, then newly begun." De
Foe suggested a general assessment of personal property, the amount
to be settled by composition, under the inspection of commissioners
appointed by the king. It was, doubtless, owing to these services,
that De Foe was appointed to the office of accountant to the com-
missioners of the glass duty, in 1695: the commission ceased in 1699.
It was probably about this time that De Foe became secretary to the
tile-kiln and brick-kiln works at Tilbury, in Essex. Pantiles had.
been hitherto a Dutch manufacture, and were brought in large quan-
tities to England. To supersede the necessity of their importation,
these works were erected. The speculation proved unsuccessful,
De Foe himself losing by its failure no less than three thousand
pounds. He continued the works, it is believed, until the year 1703,
when, being deprived of his liberty for a libel, the undertaking came
to an end.
Towards the close of the war, in 1696-7, De Foe gave to the world
his "Essay upon Projects ;" a work alike admirable for the novelty
of the subject, and the clearness and ingenuity with which it is treated.
The projects of our author may be classed under the heads of politics,
commerce, and benevolence; all having some reference to the public
improvement. The first relates to banks in general, and to the royal
or national bank in particular, which he wishes to be rendered sub-
servient to the relief of the merchant, and the interests of commerce,
as well as to the purposes of the state: his next project relates to
highways; a third, to the improvement of the bankrupt laws; a
fourth, to the plan of friendly societies, formed by mutual assurance,
for the relief of the members in seasons of distress; a fifth, for the
establishment of an asylum for "fools," or, more properly, naturals,"
whom he describes as a particular rent-charge on the great family
of mankind :" he next suggests the formation of academies, to supply
some neglected branches of education; one of these was for the
improvement of the English tongue, "to polish and refine it;" and
this project combined a reformation of that "foolish vice," swearing:
the next project of our author was an academy for military studies;
and, under the head of Academies," he suggested an institution for
the education of females:-" We reproach the sex every day," says
6

xEOIBR OF DE TOE.

he, with folly and impertinence, while, I am confident, had they the
advantages of education equal to us, they would be guilty of less than
ourselves."
In January, 1700-1, appeared De Foe's celebrated poem of "The
Trueborn Englishman." It was composed in answer to "a vile,
abhorred pamphlet, in very ill verse, written by one Mr. Tutchin, and
called 'The Foreigners,' in which the author-who he then was I
knew not," says De Foe-" fell personally upon the king and the
Dutch nation." How many thousands familiar with the following
now proverbial lines, know not that with them opens "The True-
Born Englishman!"
Wherever God erects a house of prayer,
The devil always builds a chapel there;
And 't will be found upon examination,
The latter has the largest congregation!"

De Foe traces the rise of our ancient families to the Norman
invader, who cantoned out the country to his followers, and "every
soldier was a denizen." The folly of indulging this pride of ancestry
is finely painted in the following lines:-
These are the heroes who despise the Dutch.
And rail at new-come foreigners so much,
Forgetting that themselves are all derived
From the most scoundrel race that ever lived.
A horrid crowd of rambling thieves and drones,
Who ransacked kingdoms and dispeopled towns; '
The Pict and painted Briton, treach'rous Scot,
By hunger, theft, and rapine hither brought;
Norwegian pirates, buccaneering Danes,
Whose red-haired offspring everywhere remains;
Who, joined with Norman-French, compound the breed
From whence your True-Born Englishmen proceed.
And lest by length of time it be pretended
The climate may the modem race have mended,
Wise Providence, to keep us where we are,
Mixes us daily with exceeding care."

De Foe concludes with the following striking lines:-
Could but our ancestors retrieve their fate,
And see their offspring thus degenerate:
How we contend for birth and names unknown:
And build on their past actions, not our own;
They'd cancel records, and their tombs deface,
And then disown the vile degenerate race;
For fame of families is all a cheat,
'TIS PERSONAL VIRTUE ONLY MAXES US GREAT."

"When I see the town full of lampoons and invectives against
Dutchmen," says De Foe, in his "Explanatory Preface," "only
7

MEMOIR OF DE FOE.
because they are foreigners, and the king reproached and insulted by
insolent pedants and ballad-making poets, for employing foreigners,
and being a foreigner himself, I confess myself moved by it to remind
our nation of their own original, thereby to let them see what a ban-
ter they put upon themselves; since, speaking of Englishmen ab
origin, we are really all foreigners ourselves."
It is to this poem that De Foe was indebted for a personal intro-
duction to King William. He was sent for to the palace by his
Majesty, conversed with him, and had repeated interviews with him
afterwards. The manners and sentiments of De Foe appeared to have
made such a favourable impression on the king, that he ever after
regarded him with kindness; and conceiving that his talents might be
turned to a beneficial account, he employed him in many secret ser-
vices, to which he alludes occasionally in his writings.
The effect produced upon the country by the satire was most bene-
ficial. De Foe himself, nearly thirty years afterwards, writes,
"National mistakes, vulgar errors, and even a general practice, have
been reformed by a just satire. None of our countrymen have been
known to boast of being Tree-Born Englishmen, or so much as use
the word as a title or appellation, ever since a late satire upon
that national folly was published, though almost thirty years
before."
In 1700-1, on the meeting of the fifth parliament of King William,
we find De Foe strenuously engaged advocating the necessity of set-
tling the succession in the Protestant line; an important object with
William, as the only means of perpetuating the benefits which the
nation had reaped from the Revolution. To this great end, De Foe
devoted all his energies, labouring with unwearied zeal in the cause.
His conduct on the imprisonment of the Kentish gentlemen, whose
names are historically associated with the presentation of the famous
Kentish petition, was marked with all the intrepidity of his character.
The Commons had imprisoned the petitioners, who prayed the house
for the settlement of the Protestant succession, for having presented
a petition "scandalous, insolent, and seditious." On this, De Foe
drew up his celebrated "Legion Paper." In what manner it was
communicated to the house does not appear upon the journals. It
was reported at the time that De Foe, disguised as a woman, pre-
sented it to the Speaker as he entered the House of Commons. The
"Legion" petition rang like a tocsin throughout the kingdom. As,
however, the author remained concealed, the Commons did not t!ink
fit to pass any particular censure upon it. The Kentish petitioners
were discharged by the prorogation of parliament on the 24th of
June: they were subsequently feasted at Mercers' Hall, where De
Foe attended. "Next the Worthis," says a pamphlet of the time,
"was placed their secretary of state, the author of the 'Legion
8

MExOIR OF DE iro.
Paper;' and one might have read the downfal of parliaments in hIs
very countenance."
By the death of King William, "more mortally wounded," says De
Foe, "with the pointed rage of parties, and an ungrateful people,
than by the fall from his horse," our author lost a kind friend and
powerful protector. Toward the latter part of this reign, De Foe
took up his abode at Hackney, and resided there many years. Here
some of his children were born and buried. In the parish register is
the following entry:-" Sophia, daughter to Daniel De Foe, by Mary
his wife, was baptised, December 24, 1701."
The next important work of De Foe-a work that exercised the
greatest influence on his fortunes-was the Shortest Way with the
Dissenters; or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church; 1702."
In this work, the author, assuming the character of an Ultra High
Churchman, advocates the adoption of the severest measures against
the Dissenters. "'Tis vain," writes De Foe, "to trifle inthis matter.
The light, foolish handling of them by fines, is their glory and advan-
tage. If the gallows instead of the computer, and the galleys instead
of the fines, were the reward of going to a conventicle, there would
not be so many sufferers." These arguments found high favour with
both the Universities. The High Church Party never suspected the
sincerity of their partizan, and charmed and won by the fierce doc-
trines of their champion, were unsuspicious of the satire of their
extravagance. It was, however, De Foe's hard fate to be misunder-
stood by both parties. Whilst the High Churchmen congratulated
themselves on the addition of another advocate, the Dissenters treated
him as a real enemy. The Church Party, however, fell into the trap
laid for them by De Foe; for, by expressing their delight at the fiery
sentiments of the author, they avowed them as their own true feel-
ings on the question. De Foe subsequently taunts the party thus:-
" We have innumerable testimonies," he says, with which that party
embraced the proposal of sending all the Dissenting ministers to the
gallows and the galleys; of having all their meeting-houses demo-
lished; and being let loose upon the people to plunder and destroy
them." In another place, De Foe characteristically portrays the
common fate of the subtlety of wit, when judged by the multitude.
He says-" All the fault I can find with myself as to these people
(the Dissenters) is, that when I had drawn the picture, I did not, like
the Dutchman with his man and bear, write under them,' This is the
man,' and 'This is the bear,' lest the people should mistake me; and
having in a compliment to their judgment shunned so sharp a reflec-
tion upon their senses, I have left them at liberty to treat me like one
that put a value upon their penetration at the expense of my own."
The fist detection of our author is said to have been owing to the
industry of the Earl of Nottingham, one of the secretaries of state.
9

MEMOIR O~ DE FOE.
When the author's name was known, people were at no loss to
decipher his object; and those who had committed themselves by
launching forth in his praises were stung with madness at their owl
folly. It was at once resolved by the party in power to crush De Foe
by a state prosecution. In the height of the storm, our author sought
concealment; when a proclamation was issued by the Government,
offering 50 for the discovery of his retreat, and advertised in "The
London Gazette," for January 10, 1702-3. It was as follows:-
Whereas, Daniel De Foe, alias De Fooe, is charged with writing
a scandalous and seditious pamphlet, entitled, 'The Shortest Way
with the Dissenters.' He is a middle-sized, spare man, about forty
years old; of a brown complexion, and dark brown coloured hair, but
wears a wig; a hook nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole
near his mouth: was born in London, and for many years was a hose-
factor in Freeman's Yard, Cornhill: and now is owner of the brick
and pantile works, near Tilbury Fort, in Essex: whoever shall dis-
cover the said Daniel De Foe to one of her Majesty's principal secre-
taries of state, or any of her Majesty's justices of peace, so he may be
apprehended, shall have a reward of 501., which her Majesty has
ordered immediately to be paid upon such discovery."

In the House of Commons, it was resolved that the book "be burnt
by the hands of the common hangman in Palace Yard." The printer
of the work and the bookseller being taken into custody, De Foe
issued forth from his retirement, to brave the storm, resolving, as he
expresses it, to throw himself upon the favour of government, rather
than that others should be ruined by his mistake." De Foe was
indicted at the Old Bailey sessions, the 24th of February, 1703, and
proceeded to trial in the following July. It may be gathered from
his own account of the prosecution, that when his enemies had him in
their power, they were at a loss to know what to do with him. He
was therefore advised to throw himself on the mercy of the Queen,
with a promise of protection; which induced him to quit his defence,
and acknowledge himself as the author of the offensive work. On this,
De Foe was sentenced to pay a fine of 200 marks to the Queen; to
stand three times in the pillory; to be imprisoned during the Queen's
pleasure, and to find sureties for his good behaviour for seven
years.
The people, however, were with De Foe. Hence, he was guarded
to the pillory by the populace; and descended from it with the trium-
phant acclamations of the surrounding multitude. De Foe has him-
self related, that "the people, who were expected to treat him very
ill, on the contrary, pitied him, and wished those who set him there
were placed in his room, and expressed their affections by loud shouts
10

MEMOLR Or DE FOE.
and acclamations when he was taken down." Tradition reports that
the pillory was adorned with garlands, it being in the middle of
summer. The odium intended for De Foe fell upon his persecutors,
and the pillory became to him a place of honour.
A triumphant evidence of the high spirit of De Foe -a spirit
elevated and strengthened by its unconquerable love of truth--is
manifested by the fact, that on the very day of his exhibition to the
people, he published "A Hymn to the Pillory !" This poem, which
successively passed through several editions, being eagerly bought up
by the people, opens nobly as follows:-
Hail! hieroglyphic state machine,
Contrived to punish fancy in;
Men that are men, in thee can feel no pain,
And all thy insigniflcants disdain.
Contempt, that false new word for shame,
Is, without crime, an empty name;
A shadow to amuse mankind,
But never frights the wise or well-fixed mind
Virtue despises human scorn,
And scandals innocence adorn."

De Foe is now presented to us, stripped of his fortunes, and a
prisoner. In consequence of his imprisonment, he could no longer
attend to his pantile works, which produced the chief source of his
revenue, and they were consequently given up. By this affair he lost,
as lie himself informs us, 3,500; and he had now a wife and six
children dependent upon him, with no other resource for their sup-
port than the product of his pen. Hence the leisure of De Foe, whilst
in Newgate, was not that of idleness or dissipation. Some of his
subsequent writings leave no doubt that he now stored his mind with
those facts relative to the habits and pursuits of the prisoners, which
he has detailed with so much nature as well as interest. A great part
of his time was devoted to the composition of political works which
our limits will not permit us to dwell upon. It was likewise whilst in
Newgate that he projected his "Review," a periodical work of four
quarto pages, which was published for nine successive years without
intermission; during the greater part of the time, three times a week,
and without having received any assistance whatever inits production.
Throughout this work, he carried on an unsparing warfare against
folly and vice in all their disguises: it pointed the way to the "Tat-
lers," "Spectators," and "Guardians," and may be referred to as
containing avast body of matter on subjects of high interest, written
with all the author's characteristic spirit and vigour.
The Tories vainly endeavoured to buy up De Foe: but Newgate
had no terrors of him, and he continued at once their prisoner and
their assailant. Upon the accession of Mr. Harley to office, his own
11

MEMOIR or DE TOP.
politics not being dissimilar to those of De Foe, the minister made a
private communication to our author, with the view of obtaining his
support. No immediate arrangement, however, took place between
them, as De Foe remained a prisoner some months afterwards. Not.
withstanding, it is most likely that the Queen became acquainted with
De Foe's real merits through the medium of the minister, and was
made conscious of the injustice of our author's sufferings, which she
now appeared desirous to mitigate. For this purpose, she sent money
to his wife and family, at the same time transmitting to him a suffi-
cient sum for the payment of his fine, and the expenses attending his
discharge from prison.
On his release from prison, De Foe retired to Bury St. Edmunds.
Party clamour, and party malice, however, pursued him there. On
the miserable libels issued at this time against him, he says, "I tried
retirement, and banished myself from the town. I thought, as the
boys used to say, 'twas but fair they should let me alone, while I did
not meddle with them. But neither a country recess, any more than
a stone doublet, can secure a man from the clamour of the pen." In
his elegy on the author of The True-born Englishman," he alludes to
the report that the Tories bad exerted themselves in his favour. He
says, m answer:-
So I, by Whigs abandoned, bear
The Satyr's unjust lash;
Dye with the scandal ol their help,
But never saw their cash."

It appears that in 1705 De Foe was employed by Harley to execute
some mission of a secret nature, which required his presence upon the
continent. The mission, whatever it was, appears to have been
attended with some danger, and to have required his absence for about
two months. Harley seems to have been so well satisfied, that upon
De Foe's return, he was rewarded with an appointment at home. In
1706, De Foe wrote voluminously on the subject of the union with
Scotland, which measure he advocated with all the strength of his
powers. This advocacy obtained for him a confidential mission to
Scotland, where he was received with great consideration. While in
Edinburgh, he published his "Caledonia," &c., a poem in honour of
Scotland and the Scots nation. Of the union, he says, in his Review,"
"I have told Scotland of improvement in trade, wealth, and shipping,
that shall accrue to them on the happy conclusion of this affair; and
I am pleased doubly with this, that I am likely to be one of the first
men that shall give them the pleasure of the experiment." In 1708,
De Foe was rewarded with an appointment and a fixed salary. When
the union was completed, he published The Union of Great Britain."
In 1710, De Foe resided at Stoke-Newington, and appears to have
12

MMFOIR OF DI FOB.
been comfortable in his circumstances. In 1712 was closed the last
volume of the Review." In a long preface to this volume, De Foe
has a most eloquent defence of this work, and of the mode in which
he had conducted it. Nothing can be finer, more manly, or more
conclusive. In allusion to his sufferings during the progress of the
work, he says, "I have gone through a life of wonders, and am the
subject of a vast variety of providence; I have been fed more by
miracle than Elijah when the ravens were his purveyors. I have
some time ago summed up my life in this distich:-
No man has tasted differing fortunes more,
And thirteen times I have been rich and poor.
In the school of affliction I have learnt more than at the academy, and
more divinity than from the pulpit; in prison, I have learnt to know
that liberty does not consist in open doors, and the free egress and
regress of locomotion. I have seen the rough side of the world as
well as the smooth, and have, in less than half a year, tasted the
difference between the closet of a king and the dungeon of Newgate."
This preface may be considered as a review,-a summing up of the
events of De Foe's political life, and as such is of the highest value
for the noble spirit of conscious truth breathing in and animating
every line of it. As a piece of English, it is exquisite for its innate
strength-the beauty of its simplicity. De Foe, however, was again
doomed to taste the dungeon sweets of Newgate, being committed
there upon the foolish charge of writing libels in favour of the
Pretender.
After the death of Queen Anne, De Foe, who had been a political
writer for thirty years, retired from the thorny field to the more plea-
sant paths of instructive fiction. Whilst writing "An Appeal to
Honour and Justice," he was struck with apoplexy; he however
recovered, and in the early part of 1715, committed to the press one
of his most valuable treatises, "The Family Instructor." In 1719
appeared the immortal "Robinson Crusoe! Nearly the whole circle
of booksellers had in vain been canvassed for a publisher. William
-Taylor, the fortunate speculator, is said to have cleared a thousand
pounds by the work, which rose into immediate popularity, despite of
the rancorous assaults of the petty, vulgar minds abounding amongst
De Foe's political enemies. There can be no doubt that the idea of
the work was first suggested to De Foe by the story of Alexander
Selkirk, which had been given to the public seven years before. The
enemies of De Foe charged him with having obtained this man's
journal, and from its contents producing "Robinson Crusoe." The
truth is, De Foe was as much indebted to Selkirk for the materials
used in his immortal work, as was Vandyke for his portraits to the
colourman who furnished him with pigments. In a number of The
13

MEMOIR OP bzE pO~
Englishman," Sir Richard Steele gave the true and particular history
of Selkirk. The place in which Robinson Crusoe was composed
has been variously contested. It seems most probable (says Mr. Wilson)
that De Foe wrote it in his retirement in Stoke-Newington, where he
resided, during the principal part of Queen Anne's reign, in a large
white house, rebuilt by himself, and still standing in Church-street.
The work has been printed in almost every written language,-has
been the delight of men of all creeds and all distinctions-from the
London apprentice in his garret, to the Arab in his tent.
"Robinson Crusoe" was speedily followed by the "Account of
Dickory Crooke," the "Life and Piracies of Captain Singleton," the
"History of Duncan Campbell," the "Fortunes and Misfortunes of
Moll Flanders," the "Life of Colonel Jacque," the "Memoirs of a
Cavalier," and that extraordinary work, the "Account of the Plague."
T~e might possibly have laid before the reader a correct list of the
multifarious productions of our author, many of them, until of late,
most difficult to be obtained, had not the spirit of the times called for
complete editions of De Foe's works, most welcome and valuable
offerings to the reading part of the nation.
The latter years of De Foe's life must have been those of compe-
tence, a most honourable competence, insured to him by his works,
and the rapidity with which editions followed editions. There is,
however, a too miserable proof of his sufferings, inflicted upon him by
the cruelty and undutifulness of his son, who, to quote a letter of De
Foe, written in his anguish, has both ruined my family and broken
my heart." De Foe adds,-" I depended upon him, I trusted him, I
gave up my two dear unprovided children into his hands; but he has
no compassion, and suffers them and their poor dying mother to beg
their bread at his door, and to crave, as if it were an alms, what he
is bound under hand and seal, besides the most sacred promises, to
supply them with; himself, at the same time, living in a profusion of
plenty. It is too much for me."
For some years before his death, DeFoe was tormented with those
dreadful maladies, the gout and the stone, occasioned, in part, most
probably by his close application to study, whilst making posterity the
heirs of undying wisdom. De Foe expired on the 24th of April,
1731, when he was about seventy years of age, having been born in
the year 1661. The parish of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, in which he
drew his first breath, was also destined to receive his last. He was
buried from thence, on the 26th of April, in Tindall's burial-ground,
now most known by the name of Bunhill Fields. His wife died at
the latter end of the following year. De Foe left six children, two
sons and four daughters, whose descendants are living at the present
time.
The character of De Foe was but the practical example of his
114

MEMOIR OF DE FOB.
noblest writings. As a citizen of the world, his love of truth, and
the patience, the cheerfulness, with which he endured the obloquy and
persecution of his enemies, endear him to us as a great working
benefactor to his race. His memory is enshrined with the memorie--
of those who make stedfast our faith in the nobility and goodness of
human nature. As a writer, De Foe has bequeathed to us imperish-
able stores of the highest and the most useful wisdom. If he paint
vice, it is to show its hideousness; whilst virtue itself receives a new
attraction at his hands. His poetry is chiefly distinguished for its
fine common sense; it has no flights-it never wraps us by its imagi-
nation, but convinces us by its terseness; by the irresistible eloquence
of its truth. De Foe's prose, though occasionally careless, is remark-
able for its simplicity and strength. What he has to say, he says in
the shortest manner, and in the simplest style. He does not-the
vice of our day-hide his thoughts under a glittering mass of words,
but uses words as the pictures of things. It is owing to this happy
faculty, this unforced power, that De Foe occasionally rises, as in
many instances in the golden volume now offered to the reader,
almost to the sublime. In his picture of the despair of Crusoe, we
have, in words intelligible even to infancy, a wondrous delineation of
the soul of man in a most trying and most terrible hour. De Foe is,
in the most emphatic sense of the word, an English writer. Cobbett
has been compared to him; and in many of the minor parts of author-
ship there is, certainly, a similitude; but Cobbett was singularly
deficient of imagination, the power which gave a colour and a beauty
to all that De Foe touched, even though of the homeliest aid most
unpromising materials.

h^eSwJ SaJ'

*

LIFE AND ADVENTURES

OF

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

I WAs born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a
good family, though not of that country, my father being
a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull: he got a
good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade,
lived afterwards at York ; from whence he had married my
mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very
good family in that country, and from whom I was called
Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of
words in England, we are now called,-nay we call our-
selves, and write our name, Crusoe; and so my companions
always called me.
I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieutenant-
colonel to an English regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly
commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart, and was
killed at the battle near Dunkirk against the Spaniards.
What became of my second brother I never knew, any
more than my father or mother did know what was become
of me.
Being the third son of the family, and not bred to any
trade, my head began to be filled very early with rambling
thoughts: my father, who was very ancient, had given
me a competent share of learning, as far as house-educa-
tion and a country free-school generally go, and designed
me for the law ; but I would be satisfied with nothing but
going to sea ; and my inclination to this led me so strongly
B

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

against the will, nay, the commands of my father, and
against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother
and other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal
in that propensity of nature, tending directly to the life of
misery which was to befal me.
My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and
excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my design.
He called me one morning into his chamber, where he was
confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly with
me upon this subject: he asked me what reasons, more
than a mere wandering inclination, I had for leaving my
father's house and my native country, where I might be
well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune
by application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure.
He told me it was men of desperate fortunes on one hand,
or of aspiring, superior fortunes on the other, who went
abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make
themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the
common road ; and these things were all either too far
above me, or too far below me ; that mine was the middle
state, or what might be called the upper station of low life,
which he had found, by long experience, was the best state
in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not ex-
posed to the miseries and hardships, the labour and suffer-
ings of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed
with the pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper
part of mankind. He told me, I might judge of the hap-
piness of this state by this one thing, viz., that this was
the state of life which all other people envied; that kings
have frequently lamented the miserable consequence of
being born to great things, and wished they had been
placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the
mean and the great; that the wise man gave his testimony
to this, as the standard of felicity, when he prayed to have
neither poverty nor riches.
He bade me observe it, and I should always find, that
the calamities of life were shared among the upper and

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

lower part of mankind; but that the middle station had
the fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so many vicis-
situdes as the higher or lower part of mankind ; nay, they
were not subjected to so many distempers, and uneasiness,
either of body or mind, as those were who, by vicious living,
luxury, and extravagances on one hand, or by hard labour,
want of necessaries, and mean or insufficient diet on the
other hand, bring distempers upon themselves by the
natural consequences of their way of living; that the
middle station of life was calculated for all kind of virtues
and all kind of enjoyments ; that peace and plenty were the
handmaids of a middle fortune ; that temperance, mode-
ration, quietness, health, society, all agreeable diversions,
and all desirable pleasures, were the blessings attending the
middle station of life; that this way men went silently and
smoothly through the world, and comfortably out of it, not
embarrassed with the labours of the hands or of the head,
not sold to a life of slavery for daily bread, nor harassed
with perplexed circumstances, which rob the soul of peace,
and the body of rest; nor enraged with the passion of envy,
or the secret burning lust of ambition for great things;
but, in easy circumstances, sliding gently through the world,
and sensibly tasting the sweets of living, without the bitter;
feeling that they are happy, and learning by every day's
experience to know it more sensibly.
After this, he pressed me earnestly, and in the most
affectionate manner, not to play the young man, nor to pre-
cipitate myself into miseries which nature, and the station
of life I was born in, seemed to have provided against;
that I was under no necessity of seeking my bread; that
he would do well for me, and endeavour to enter me fairly
into the station of life which he had just been recommend-
ing to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in
the world, it must be my mere fate or fault that must
hinder it; and that he should have nothing to answer for,
having thus discharged his duty in warning me against
measures which he knew would be to my hurt; in a word,
B2

LOBINSON CRUSOE.

that as he would do very kind things for me if I would stay
and settle at home as xe directed, so he would not have so
much hand in my mifortunes, as to give me any encou-
ragement to go away ; and to close all, he told me I had
my elder brother for an example, to whom he had used the
same earnest persuasions to keep him from going into
the Low Country wars, but could not prevail, his young
desires prompting him to run into the army, where he was
killed; and though he said he would not cease to pray for
me, yet he would venture to say to me, that if I did take
this foolish step God would not bless me, and I should have
leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his coun-
sel, when there might be none to assist in my recovery.
I observed in this last part of his discourse, which was
truly prophetic, though I suppose my father did not know
it to be so himself; I say, I observed the tears run down
his face very plentifully, especially when he spoke of my
brother who was killed ; and that when he spoke of my
having leisure to repent, and none to assist me, he was so
moved that he broke off the discourse, and told me his
heart was so full he could say no more to me.
I was sincerely affected with this discourse, as indeed
who could be otherwise ? and I resolved not to think of
going abroad any more, but to settle at home according to
my father's desire. But alas a few days wore it all off;
and, in short, to prevent any of my father's further impor-
tunities, in a few weeks after, I resolved to run quite away
from him. However, I did not act quite so hastily as the
first heat of my resolution prompted, but I took my mother
at a time when I thought her a little more pleasant than
ordinary, and told her that my thoughts were so entirely
bent upon seeing the world, that I should never settle to
anything with resolution enough to go through with it, and
my father had better give me his consent than force me to
go without it; that I was now eighteen years old, which
was too late to go apprentice to a trade, or clerk to an
attorney; that I was sure if I did I should never serve out

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

my time, but 1 should certainly run away from my master
before my time was out, and go to sea ; and if she would
speak to my father to let me go one voyage abroad, if I
came home again, and did not like it, I would go no more;
and I would promise, by a double diligence, to recover the
time that I had lost.
This put my mother into a great passion; she told me
she knew it would be to no purpose to speak to my father
upon any such subject; that he knew too well what was
my interest to give his consent to anything so much for my
hurt; and that she wondered how I could think of any
such thing after the discourse I had had with my father,
and such kind and tender expressions as she knew my
father had used to me; and that, in short, if I would ruin
myself, there was no help for me; but I might depend I
should never have their consent to it; that for her part,
she would not have so much hand in my destruction; and
I should never have it to say that my mother was willing
when my father was not.
Though my mother refused to name it to my father, yet
I heard afterwards that she reported all the discourse to
him, and that my father, after showing a great concern at
it, said to her, with a sigh : That boy might be happy if
he would stay at home; but if he goes abroad, he will be
the most miserable wretch that ever was born : I can give
no consent to it."
It was not till almost a year after this that I broke loose,
though, in the mean time, I continued obstinately deaf to
all proposals of settling to business, and frequently ex-
postulated with my father and mother about their being so
positively determined against what they knew my inclina-
tions prompted me to. But being one day at Hull, whither
I went casually, and without any purpose of making an
elopement at that time ; but, I say, being there, and one
of my companions being going by sea to London in his
father's ship, and prompting me to go with them, with the
common allurement of a seafaring man, that it should cost

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

me nothing for my passage, I consulted neither father nor
mother any more, nor so much as sent them word of it;
but leaving them to hear of it as they might, without ask-
ing God's blessing or my father's, without any consider-
ation of circumstances or consequences, and in an ill hour,
God knows, on the 1st of September, 1651, I went on
board a ship bound for London. Never any young adven-
turer's misfortunes, I believe, began sooner or continued
longer than mine. The ship was no sooner got out of the
Humber, than the wind began to blow and the sea to rise
in a most frightful manner; and, as I had never been at
sea before, I was most inexpressibly sick in body, and
terrified in mind. I began now seriously to reflect upon
what I had done, and how justly I was overtaken by the
judgment of Heaven for my wicked leaving my father's
house, and abandoning my duty. All the good counsels
of my parents, my father's tears and my mother's entreaties,
came now fresh into my mind; and my conscience, which
was not yet come to the pitch of hardness to which it has
come since, reproached me with the contempt of advice,
and the breach of my duty to God and my father.
All this while the storm increased, and the sea went very
high, though nothing like what I have seen many times
since ; no, nor what I saw a few days after ; but it was
enough to affect me then, who was but a young sailor, and
had never known anything of the matter. I expected every
wave would have swallowed us up, and that every time the
ship fell down, as I thought it did, in the trough or hollow
of the sea, we should never rise more: in this agony of
mind, I made many vows and resolutions, that if it would
please God to spare my life in this one voyage, if ever I
got once my foot upon dry land again, I would go directly
home to my father, and never set it into a ship again while
I lived ; that I would take his advice, and never run
myself into such miseries as these any more. Now I saw
plainly the goodness of his observations about the middle
station of life, how easy, how comfortably he had lived all

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

his days, and never had been exposed to tempests at sea,
or troubles on shore; and, in short, I resolved that I would,
like a true repenting prodigal, go home to my father.
These wise and sober thoughts continued all the while
the storm lasted, and indeed some time after ; but the next
day the wind was abated, and the sea calmer, and I began
to be a little inured to it: however, I was very grave for
all that day, being also a little sea-sick still; but towards
night the weather cleared up, the wind was quite over, and
a charming fine evening followed; the sun went down per-
fectly clear, and rose so the next morning; and having
little or no wind, and a smooth sea, the sun shining upon
it, the sight was, as I thought, the most delightful that
ever I saw.
I had slept well in the night, and was now no more
sea-sick, but very cheerful, looking with wonder upon the
sea that was so rough and terrible the day before, and
could be so calm and so pleasant in so little a time after
And now, lest my good resolutions should continue, my
companion, who had enticed me away, comes to me:
" Well, Bob," says he, clapping me upon the shoulder,
"how do you do after it ? I warrant you were frighted,
wcr'n't you, last night, when it blew but a capful of
wind ?"-" A capful d'you call it?" said I; "'twas a
terrible storm."-" A storm, you fool you," replies he;
" do you call that a storm ? why, it was nothing at all;
give us but a good ship and sea-room, and we think
nothing of such a squall of wind as that; but you're but a
fresh-water sailor, Bob. Come, let us make a bowl of
punch, and we'll forget all that; d'ye see what charming
weather 'tis now?" To make short this sad part of my
story, we went the way of all sailors; the punch was made,
and I was made half-drunk with it; and in that one
night's wickedness I drowned all my repentance, all my
reflections upon my past conduct, all my resolutions for
the future. In a word, as the sea was returned to its
smoothness of surface and settled calmness by the abate-

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

ment of that storm, so the hurry of my thoughts being
over, my fears and apprehensions of being swallowed up
by the sea being forgotten, and the current of my former
desires returned, I entirely forgot the vows and promises
that I made in my distress. I found, indeed, some inter-
vals of reflection; and the serious thoughts did, as it
were, endeavour to return again sometimes ; but I shook
them off, and roused myself from them as it were from a
distemper, and applying myself to drinking and company,
soon mastered the return of those fits-for so I called
them ; and I had in five or six days got as complete a vic-
tory over my conscience as any young fellow that resolved
not to be troubled with it could desire. But I was to have
another trial for it still; and Providence, as in such cases
generally it does, resolved to leave me entirely without
excuse; for if I would not take this for a deliverance,
the next was to be such a one as the worst and most
hardened wretch among us would confess both the danger
and the mercy of.
The sixth day of our being at sea we came into Yar-
mouth Roads; the wind having been contrary, and the
weather calm, we had made but little way since the storm.
Here we were obliged to come to an anchor, and here we
lay, the wind continuing contrary, viz., at south-west, for
seven or eight days, during which time a great many ships
from Newcastle came into the same roads, as the common
harbour where the ships might wait for a wind for the river.
We had not, however, rid here so long, but we should
have tided it up the river, but that the wind blew too
fresh, and, after we had lain four or five days, blew very
hard. However, the roads being reckoned as good as a
harbour, the anchorage good, and our ground-tackle very
strong, our men were unconcerned, and not in the least
apprehensive of danger, but spent the time in rest and
mirth, after the manner of the sea; but the eighth day,
in the morning, the wind increased, and we had all hands
at work to strike our top-masts, and make everything snug

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

and close, that the ship might ride as easy as possible.
By noon the sea went very high indeed, and our ship rode
forecastle in, shipped several seas, and we thought once or
twice our anchor had come home; upon which our master
ordered out the sheet-anchor, so that we rode with two
anchors ahead, and the cables veered out to the better end.
By this time it blew a terrible storm indeed ; and now I
began to see terror and amazement in the faces even of the
seamen themselves. The master, though vigilant in the
business of preserving the ship, yet as he went in and out
of his cabin by me, I could hear him softly to himself say,
several times, Lord, be merciful to us we shall be all
lost; we shall be all undone!" and the like. During
these first hurries I was stupid, lying still in my cabin,
which was in the steerage, and cannot describe my temper:
I could ill resume the first penitence which I had so
apparently trampled upon, and hardened myself against:
I thought the bitterness of death had been past; and that
this would be nothing like the first; but when the master
himself came by me, as I said just now, and said we
should be all lost, I was dreadfully frighted. I got up out
of my cabin, and looked out; but such a dismal sight
I never saw :, the sea ran mountains high, and broke upon
us every three or four minutes; when I could look about,
I could see nothing but distress round us; two ships that
rode near us, we found, had cut their masts by the board,
being deep laden; and our men cried out, that a ship
which rode about a mile ahead of us was foundered. Two
more ships, being driven from their anchors, were run out
of the roads to sea, at all adventures, and that not with a
mast standing. The light ships fared the best, as not so
much labouring in the sea; but two or three of them
drove, and came close by us, running away with only their
spritsail out before the wind.
Towards evening the mate and boatswain begged the
master of our ship to let them cut away the fore-mast,
which he was very unwilling to do; but the boatswain

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

protesting to him, that if he did not, the ship would
founder, he consented; and when they had cut away the
fore-mast, the main-mast stood so loose, and shook the
ship so much, they were obliged to cut that away also, and
make a clear deck.
And one must judge what a condition I must be in at
all this, who was but a young sailor, and who had been in
such a fright before at but a little But if I can express
at this distance the thoughts I had about me at that time,
I was in tenfold more horror of mind upon account of my
former convictions, and the having returned from them to
the resolutions I had wickedly taken at first, than I was
at death itself! and these, added to the terror of the
storm, put me into such a condition, that I can by no
words describe it. But the worst was not come yet; the
storm continued with such fury, that the seamen them-
selves acknowledged they had never seen a worse. We
had a good ship, but she was deep laden, and wallowed
in the sea, so that the seamen every now and then cried
out she would founder. It was my advantage in one
respect that I did not know what they meant by founder,
till I inquired. However the storm was so violent, that I
saw, what is not often seen, the master, the boatswain,
and some others more sensible than the rest, at their
prayers, and expecting every moment when the ship would
go to the bottom. In the middle of the night, and under
all the rest of our distresses, one of the men that had boon
down to see, cried out we had sprung a leak; another said,
there was four feet water in the hold. Then all hands
were called to the pump. At that word, my heart, as
I thought, died within me; and I fell backwards upon the
side of my bed where I sat, into the cabin. However, the
men roused me, and told me, that I, that was able to do
nothing before, was as well able to pump as another; at
which I stirred up, and went to the pump, and worked
very heartily. While this was doing, the master seeing
some light colliers, who, not able to ride out the storm,

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

were obliged to slip, and ran away to the sea, and would
come near us, ordered to fire a gun as a signal of distress.
I, who knew nothing what they meant, thought the ship
had broken, or some dreadful thing happened. In a word,
I was so surprised that I fell down in a swoon. As this
was a time when everybody had his own life to think of,
nobody minded me, or what was become of me; but ano-
ther man stepped up to the pump, and thrusting me aside
with his foot, let me lie, thinking I had been dead; and it
was a great while before I came to myself.
We worked on ; but the water increasing in the hold, it
was apparent that the ship would founder; and though the
storm began to abate a little, yet as it was not possible she
could swim till we might run into any port, so the master
continued firing guns for help; and a light ship, who had
rid it out just ahead of us, ventured a boat out to help us.
It was with the utmost hazard the boat came near us ; but
it was impossible for us to get on board, or for the boat to
lie near the ship's side, till at last the men rowing very
heartily, and venturing their lives to save ours, our men
cast them a rope over the stern with a buoy to it, and then
veered it out a great length, which they, after much labour
and hazard, took hold of, and we hauled them close under
our stern, and got all into their boat. It was to no purpose
for them or us, after we were in the boat, to think of reach-
ing to their own ship; so all agreed to let her drive, and
only to pull her in towards shore as much as we could ; and
our master promised them, that if the boat was staved
upon shore, he would make it good to their master: so
partly rowing, and partly driving, our boat went away to
the northward, sloping towards the shore almost as far as
Winterton Ness.
We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out
of our ship till we saw her sink, and then I understood for
the first time what was meant by a ship foundering in the
sea. I must acknowledge I had hardly eyes to look up
when the seamen told me she was sinking; for from the

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

moment that they rather put me into the boat, than that
I might be said to go in, my heart was, as it were, dead
within me, partly with fright, partly with horror of mind,
and the thoughts of what was yet before me.
While we were in this condition,-the men yet labour-
ing at the oar to bring the boat near the shore,-we could
see (when, our boat mounting the waves, we were able to
see the shore) a great many people running along the
strand, to assist us when we should come near; but we
made but slow way towards the shore ; nor were we able to
reach the shore, till, being past the lighthouse at Winter-
ton, the shore falls off to the westward towards Cromer,
and so the land broke off a little the violence of the wind.
Here we got in, and, though not without much difficulty,
got all safe on shore, and walked afterwards on foot to
Yarmouth, where, as unfortunate men, we were used with
great humanity, as well by the magistrates of the town,
who assigned us good quarters, as by particular merchants
and owners of ships, and had money given us sufficient to
carry us either to London or back to Hull, as we thought fit.
Had I now had the sense to have gone back to Hull, and
have gone home, I had been happy, and my father, as in
our blessed Saviour's parable, had even killed the fatted
calf for me ; for hearing the ship I went away in was cast
away in Yarmouth Roads, it was a great while before he
had any assurances that I was not drowned.
But my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that
nothing could resist; and though I had several times loud
calls from my reason, and my more composed judgment, to
go home, yet I had no power to do it. I know not what to
call this, nor will I urge that it is a secret overruling
decree, that hurries us on to be the instruments of our own
destruction, even though it be before us, and that we rush
upon it with our eyes open. Certainly, nothing but some
such decreed unavoidable misery, which it was impossible
for me to escape, could have pushed me forward against the
calm reasoning and persuasions of my most retired thoughts,

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

and against two such visible instructions as I had met with
in my first attempt.
My comrade, who had helped to harden me before, and
who was the master's son, was now less forward than I.
The first time he spoke to me after we were at Yarmouth,
which was not till two or three days, for we were separated
in the town to several quarters ; I say, the first time he saw
me, it appeared his tone was altered; and, looking very
melancholy, and shaking his head, he asked me how I did,
and telling his father who I was, and how I had come this
voyage only for a trial, in order to go farther abroad: his
father, turning to me with a very grave and concerned tone,
" Young man," says he, you ought never to go to sea any
more; you ought to take this for a plain and visible token
that you are not to be a seafaring man." Why, sir," said
I, will you go to sea no more ?" That is another case,"
said he ; it is my calling, and therefore my duty ; but as
you made this voyage for a trial, you see what a taste
Heaven has given you of what you are to expect if you
persist. Perhaps this has all befallen us on your account,
like Jonah in the ship of Tarshish. Pray," continues he,
"what are you ; and on what account did you go to sea ?"
Upon that I told him some of my story; at the end ol
which he burst out into a strange kind of passion : "What
had I done," says he, that such an unhappy wretch
should come into my ship ? I would not set my foot in the
same ship with thee again for a thousand pounds." This
indeed was, as I said, an excursion of his spirits, which
were yet agitated by the sense of his loss, and was farther
than he could have authority to go. However, he after-
wards talked very gravely to me, exhorting me to go back
to my father, and not tempt Providence to my ruin, telling
me I might see a visible hand of Heaven against me. "And,
young man," said he, depend upon it, if you do not go
back, wherever you go, you will meet with nothing but
disasters and disappointments, till your father's words are
fulfilled upon you."

OBINSON CRUSOG.

We parted soon after; for I made him little answer, and
I saw him no more; which way he went I knew not. As
for me, having some money in my pocket, I travelled to
London by land; and there, as well as on the road, had
many struggles with myself, what course of life I should
take, and whether I should go home or go to sea.
As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that
offered to my thoughts ; and it immediately occurred to me
how I should be laughed at among the neighbours, and
should be ashamed to see, not my father and mother only,
but even everybody else; from whence I have since often
observed, how incongruous and irrational the common
temper of mankind is, especially of youth, to that reason
which ought to guide them in such cases, viz., that they
are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent; not
ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be
esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which
only can make them be esteemed wise men.
In this state of life, however, I remained some time,
uncertain what measures to take, and what course of life to
lead. An irresistible reluctance continued to going home;
and as I stayed awhile, the remembrance of the distress I
had been in wore off; and as that abated, the little motion
I had in my desires to return wore off with it, till at last I
quite laid aside the thoughts of it, and looked out for a
voyage.
That evil influence which carried me first away from my
father's house,-which hurried me into the wild and indi-
gested notion of raising my fortune; and that impressed
those conceits so forcibly upon me, as to make me deaf to
all good advice, and to the entreaties and even the com-
mands of my father: I say, the same influence, whatever
it was, presented the most unfortunate of all enterprises
to my view; and I went on board a vessel bound to the
coast of Africa ; or, as our sailors vulgarly called it, a voyage
to Guinea.
It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures

ROIINSON CIUSOZ

I did not ship myself as a sailor; when, though I might
indeed have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet. at the
same time I should have learnt the duty and office of a fore-
mast man, and in time might have qualified myself for a
mate or lieutenant, if not for a master. But as it was
always my fate to choose for the worse, so I did here ; for
having money in my pocket, and good clothes upon my
back, I would always go on board in the. habit of a gentle-
man; and so I neither had any business in the ship, nor
learned to do any.
It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company
in London, which does not always happen to such. loose and
misguided young fellows as I then was ; the devil generally
not omitting to lay some snare for them very early ; but it
was not so with me. I first got acquainted with the master
of a ship who had been on the coast of Guinea; and who,
having had very good success there, was resolved to go again.
This captain taking a fancy to my conversation, which was
not at all disagreeable at that time, hearing me say I had a
mind to see the world, told me if I would go the voyage with
him I should be at no expense; I should be his messmate
and his companion; and if I could carry anything with
me, I should have all the advantage of it that the trade
would admit; and perhaps I might meet with some
encouragement.
I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friend-
ship with this captain, who was an honest, plain-dealing
man, I went the voyage with him, and carried a small
adventure with me, which, by the disinterested honesty of
my friend the captain, I increased very considerably ; for I
carried about 40 in such toys and trifles as the captain
directed me to buy. These 40 I had mustered together
by the assistance of some of my relations whom I corre-
sponded with ; and who, I believe, got my father, or at
least my mother, to contribute so much as that to. my first
adventure.
This was the only voyage which I may say was succea-

jL

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

ful in all my adventures, which I owe to the integrity and
honesty of my friend the captain; under whom also I got
a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules of
navigation, learned how to keep an account of the ship's
course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand
some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor;
for, as he took delight to instruct me, I took delight to
learn ; and, in a word, this voyage made me both a sailor
and a merchant; for I brought home five pounds nine
ounces of gold-dust for my adventure, which yielded me in
London, at my return, almost 300; and this filled me
with those aspiring thoughts which have since so completed
my ruin.
Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too ; par-
ticularly, that I was continually sick, being thrown into a
violent calenture by the excessive heat of the climate; our
principal trading being upon the coast, from the latitude of
fifteen degrees north even to the line itself.
I was now set up for a Guinea trader ; and my friend,
to my great misfortune, dying soon after his arrival, I
resolved to go the same voyage again, and I embarked in
the same vessel with one who was his mate in the former
voyage, and had now got the command of the ship. This
was the unhappiest voyage that ever man made ; for though
I did not carry quite 100 of my new-gained wealth, so
that I had 200 left, which I had lodged with my friend's
widow, who was very just to me, yet I fell into terrible
misfortunes: the first was this-our ship making her
course towards the Canary Islands, or rather between those
Islands and the African shore, was surprised in the grey of
the morning by a Turkish rover of Sallee, who gave chase
to us with all the sail she could make. We crowded also
as much canvas as our yards would spread, or our masts
carry to get clear; but finding the pirate gained upon us,
and would would certainly come up with us in a few hours,
we prepared to fight; our ship having twelve guns, and the
rogue eighteen. About three in the afternoon he came up

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

with us, and bringing to, by mistake, just athwart our
quarter, instead of athwart our stern, as he intended, we
brought eight of our guns to bear on that side, and poured
in a broadside upon him, which made him sheer off again,
after returning our fire, and pouring in also his small shot
from near two hundred men which he had on board. How-
ever, we had not a man touched, all our men keeping close.
He prepared to attack us again, and we to defend ourselves.
but laying us on board the next time upon our other
quarter, he entered sixty men upon our decks, who imme-
diately fell to cutting and hacking the sails and rigging.
We plied them with small shot, half-pikes, powder-chests,
and such like, and cleared our deck of them twice. How-
ever, to cut short this melancholy part of our story, our
ship being disabled, and three of our men killed, and eight
wounded, we were obliged to yield, and were carried all
prisoners into Sallee, a port belonging to the Moors.
The usage I had there was not so dreadful as at first I
Apprehended; nor was I carried up the country to the
emperor's court, as the rest of our men were, but was kept
by the captain of the rover as his proper prize, and made
his slave, being young and nimble, and fit for his business.
At this surprising change of my circumstances, from a
merchant to a miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed ;
and now I looked back upon my father's prophetic dis-
course to me, that I should be miserable and have none to
relieve me, which I thought was now so effectually brought
to pass, that I could not be worse; for now the hand of
Heaven had overtaken me, and I was undone without
redemption ; but, alas! this was but a taste of the misery
I was to go through, as will appear in the sequel of this
Story.
As my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his
house, so I was in hopes that he would take me with him
when he went to sea again, believing that it would some
time or other be his fate to be taken by a Spanish or Por-
tugal man-of-war ; and that then I should be set at liberty.

18 ROBINSON CRUSOE.

But this hope of mine was soon taken away; for when he
went to sea, he left me on shore to look after his little
garden, and do the common drudgery of slaves about his
house; and when he came home again from his cruise, he
ordered me to lie in the cabin to look after the ship.
Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what
method I might take to effect it, but found no way that
had the least probability in it; nothing presented to make
the supposition of it rational; for I had nobody to com-
municate it to that would embark with me-no fellow-
slave, no Englishman, Irishman, or Scotsman, there but
myself; so that for two years, though I often pleased myself
with the imagination, yet I never had the least encouraging
prospect of putting it in practice.
After about two years, an odd circumstance presented
itself, which put the old thought of making some attempt
for my liberty again in my head. My patron lying at home
longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I
heard, was for want of money, he used, constantly, once
or twice a week, sometimes oftener, if the weather was fair,
to take the ship's pinnace, and go out into the road a-fishing;
and, as he always took me and young Maresco with him to
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very
dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he
would send me with a Moor, one of his kinsmen, and the
youth-the Maresco, as they called him-to catch a dish of
fish for him.
It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm
morning, a fog rose so thick that, though we were not half
a league from the shore, we lost sight of it; and rowing we
knew not whither or which way, we laboured all day, and
all the next night; and when the morning came, we found
we had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore;
and that we were at least two leagues from the shore. How-
ever, we got well in again, though with a great deal of labour
and some danger; for the wind began to blow pretty fresh
in the morning; but we were all very hungry.

1OBDwON CBUSOE. 19

But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take
more care of himself for the future ; and having lying by
him the long-boat of our English ship that he had taken,
he resolved he would not go a-fishing any more without a
compass and some provision ; so he ordered the carpenter of
his ship, who also was an English slave, to build a little state-
room, or cabin, in the middle of the long-boat, like that of
a barge, with a place to stand behind it to steer, and haul
home the main-sheet; and room before for a hand or two
to stand and work the sails. She sailed with what we call
a shoulder-of-mutton sail; and the boom gibed over the top
of the cabin, which lay very snug and low, and had in it
room for him to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat
on, with some small lockers to put in some bottles of such
liquor as he thought fit to drink; and his bread, rice, and
coffee.
We went frequently out with this boat a-fishing ; and as
I was most dexterous to catch fish for him, he never went
without me. It happened that he had appointed to go out
in this boat, either for pleasure or for fish, with two or three
Moors of some distinction in that place, and for whom he
L~A provided extraordinarily, and had therefore sent on
b:ard the boat over-night a larger store of provisions than
'ordinary; and had ordered me to get ready three fusees
ith powder and shot, which were on board his ship,
or that they designed some sport of fowling as well as
thing.
I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited
he next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient
nd pendants out, and everything to accommodate his
guests; when by-and-by my patron came on board alone,
and told me his guests had put off going, from some busi-
ess that fell out, and ordered me, with the man and boy,
s usual, to go out with the boat and catch them some fish,
or that his friends were to sup at his house; and com-
anded that as soon as I got some fish I should bring it
ome to his house : all which I prepared to do.
c2

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

This moment, my former notions of deliverance darted
into my thoughts, for now I found I was likely to have a
little ship at my command; and my master being gone, I
prepared to furnish myself, not for fishing business, but for
a voyage; though I knew not, neither did I so much as
consider, whither I should steer,-anywhere to get out of
that place was my desire.
My first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to
this Moor, to get something for our subsistence on board ;
for I told him we must not presume to eat of our patron's
bread. He said that was true; so he brought a large
basket of rusk or biscuit, and three jars of fresh water,
into the boat. I knew where my patron's case of bottles
stood, which it was evident, by the make, were taken out
of some English prize, and I conveyed them into the boat
while the Moor was on shore, as if they had been there
before for our master. I conveyed also a great lump of
bees-wax into the boat, which weighed above half a hun-
dredweight, with a parcel of twine or thread, a hatchet, a
saw, and a hammer, all of which were of great use to us
afterwards, especially the wax to make candles. Another
trick I tried upon him, which he innocently came into
also: his name was Ismael, which they call Muley, or
Moely ; so I called to him :-" Moely," said I, "our
patron's guns are on board the boat; can you not get a
little powder and shot? It may be we may kill some
alcamies (a fowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for I know
he keeps the gunner's stores in the ship." Yes," says he,
"I'll bring some; and accordingly he brought a great
leather pouch, which held a pound and a half of powder, or
rather more ; and another with shot, that had five or six
pounds, with some bullets, and put all into the boat. At
the same time, I had found some powder of my master's
in the great cabin, with which I filled one of the large
bottles in the case, which was almost empty, pouring what
was in it into another; and thus furnished with everything
needful, we sailed out of the port to fish. The castle,

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

which is at the entrance of the port, knew who we were,
and took no notice of us; and we were not above a mile
out of the port before we hauled in our sail, and set us
down to fish. The wind blew from the N.N.E., which was
.:.ntrary to my desire, for had it blown southerly, I had
I,1.,l, sure to have made the coast of Spain, and at least
i,-,..hed to the bay of Cadiz; but my resolutions were,
II. -iv which way it would, I would be gone from that horrid
Il.l,.c where I was, and leave the rest to fate.
After we had fished some time and caught nothing, for
l-irn I had fish on my hook I would not pull them up,
that he might not see them, I said to the Moor, This
nill not do; our master will not be thus served; we must
t.nrid farther off." He, thinking no harm, agreed, and
I",~ig in the head of the boat set the sails ; and, as I had
tl helm, I run the boat out near a league farther, and
tlhn brought her to as if I would fish; when, giving the
l,,y the helm, I stepped forward to where the Moor was,
ari. making as if I stooped for something behind him,
iJ t.,..k him by surprise with my arm under his waist, and
it...,.Jl him clear overboard into the sea. He rose immedi-
atc y, for he swam like a cork, and called to me, begged to
be taken in, told me he would go all over the world with
ae. He swam so strong after the boat, that he would have
reached me very quickly, there being but little wind; upon
which I stepped into the cabin, and fetching one of the
owling-pieces, I presented it at him, and told him I had
one him no hurt, and if he would be quiet I would do
im none: "But," said I, "you swim well enough to
each to the shore, and the sea is calm ; make the best of
our way to shore, and I will do you no harm; but if
ou come near the boat, I'll shoot you through the head,
or I am resolved to have my liberty:" so he turned him-
elf about, and swam for the shore, and I make no doubt
ut he reached it with ease, for he was an excellent
wimmer.
I could have been content to have taken this Moor with

ROD1NSON CRUSOE.

me, and have drowned the boy, but there was no venturing
to trust him. When he was gone, I turned to the boy,
whom they called Xury, and said to him, Xury, if you
will be faithful to me, I'll make you a great man ; but ii
you will not stroke your face to be true to me," that is,
swear by Mahomet and his father's beard, I must throw
you into the sea too." The boy smiled in my face,
and spoke so innocently, that I could not distrust him,
and swore to be faithful to me, and go all over the world
with me.
While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I
stood out directly to sea with the boat, rather stretching
to windward, that they might think me gone towards the
Straits' mouth (as indeed any one that had been in their wits
must have been supposed to do): for who would have sup-
posed we were sailed on to the southward to the truly
Barbarian coast, where whole nations of Negroes were sure
to surround us with their canoes, and destroy us ; where
we could not go on shore but we should be devoured by
savage beasts, or more merciless savages of human kind ?
But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed
my course, and steered directly south and by east, bending
my course a little towards the east, that I might keep in
with the shore: and having a fair, fresh gale of wind, and
a smooth, quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe by the
next day at three o'clock in the afternoon, when I first
made the land, I could not be less than one hundred and
fifty miles south of Sallee: quite beyond the Emperor of
Morocco's dominions, or indeed of any other king there-
abouts, for we saw no people.
Yet such was the fright I had taken of the Moors, and
the dreadful apprehensions I had of falling into their
hands, that I would not stop, or go on shore, or come to
an anchor; the wind continuing fair till I had sailed in
that manner five days; and then the wind shifting to the
southward, I concluded also that if any of our vessels were
in chase of me, they also would now give over; so I

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

ventured to make to the coast, and came to an anchor in
the mouth of a little river, I knew not what, nor where;
neither what latitude, what country, what nation, or what
river. I neither saw, nor desired to see any people; the
principal thing I wanted was fresh water. We came into
this creek in the evening, resolving to swim on shore as
soon as it was dark, and discover the country; but as soon
as it was quite dark, we heard such dreadful noises of the
barking, roaring, and howling of wild creatures, of we knew
not what kinds, that the poor boy was ready to die with
fear, and begged of me not to go on shore till day. Well,
Xury," said I, then I won't; but it may be we may see
men by day, who will be as bad to us as those lions."-
"Then we give them the shoot gun," says Xury, laughing,
"make them run wey." Such English Xury spoke by
conversing among us slaves. However, I was glad to see
the boy so cheerful, and I gave him a dram (out of our
patron's case of bottles) to cheer him up. After all, Xury's
advice was good, and I took it: we dropped our little
anchor, and lay still all night ; I say still, for we slept
none ; for in two or three hours we saw vast great creatures
(we knew not what to call them) of many sorts, come down to
the sea-shore, and run into the water, wallowing and wash-
ing themselves for the pleasure of cooling themselves ; and
they made such hideous howling and yelling, that I never
indeed heard the like.
Xury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was I too;
but we were both more frighted when we heard one of these
mighty creatures come swimming towards our boat; we
could not see him, but we might hear him by his blowing
to be a monstrous huge and furious beast. Xury said it
was a lion, and it might be so for aught I know ; but poor
Xury cried to me to weigh the anchor and row away:
"No," says I, Xury; we can slip our cable, with the
buoy to it, and go off to sea ; they cannot follow us far."
I had no sooner said so, but I perceived the creature (what-
ever it was) within two oars' length, which something sur-

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

prised me ; however, I immediately stepped to the cabin-
door, and taking up my gun, fired at him ; upon which he
immediately turned about, and swam towards the shore
again.
But it is impossible to describe the horrid noises, and
hideous cries and howlings, that were raised, as well upon
the edge of the shore as higher within the country, upon
the noise or report of the gun, a thing I have some reason
to believe those creatures had never heard before: this
convinced me that there was no going on shore for us in
the night on that coast, and how to venture on shore in the
day was another question too ; for to have fallen into the
hands of any of the savages, had been as bad to have fallen
into the hands of the lions and tigers; at least we were
equally apprehensive of the danger of it.
Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore some-
where or other for water, for we had not a pint left in the
boat; when or where to get it was the point. Xury said,
if I would let him go on shore with one of the jars, he
would find if there was any water, and bring some to me.
I asked him why he would go ? why I should not go, and
he stay in the boat ? The boy answered with so much
affection, as made me love him ever after. Says he, If
wild mans come, they eat me, you go wey."-"Well,
Xury," said I, we will both go, and if the wild mans come,
we will kill them, they shall eat neither of us." So I gave
Xury a piece of rusk bread to eat, and a dram out of our
patron's case of bottles which I mentioned before; and
we hauled the boat in as near the shore as we thought was
proper, and so waded on shore; carrying nothing but our
arms, and two jars for water.
I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the
coming of canoes with savages down the river ; but the
boy seeing a low place about a mile up the country, ram-
bled to it, and by-and-by I saw him come running towards
me. I thought he was pursued by some savage, or frighted
with some wild beast, and I ran forwards towards him to

ROBINSON CRUSOE

help him; but when I came nearer to him, I saw some-
thing hanging over his shoulders, which was a creature
that he had shot, like a hare, but different in colour, and
longer legs: however, we were very glad of it, and it was
very good meat; but the great joy that poor Xury came
with, was to tell me he had found good water, and seen no
wild mans.
But we found afterwards that we need not take such
pains for water, for a little higher up the creek where we
were we found the water fresh when the tide was out, which
flowed but a little way up; so we filled our jars, and
feasted on the hare we had killed, and prepared to go on
our way, having seen no footsteps of any human creature in
that part of the country.
As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I knew
very well that the islands of the Canaries and the Cape de
Verd Islands also, lay not far off from the coast. But as I
had no instruments to take an observation to know what
latitude we were in, and not exactly knowing, or at least
remembering, what latitude they were in, I knew not where
to look for them, or when to stand off to sea towards them ;
otherwise I might now easily have found some of these
islands. But my hope was, that if I stood along this coast
till I came to that part where the English traded, I should
find some of their vessels upon their usual design of trade,
that would relieve and take us in.
By the best of my calculation, that place where I now
was must be that country which, lying between the Emperor
of Morocco's dominions and the Negroes, lies waste and un-
inhabited, except by wild beasts; the Negroes having aban-
doned it, and gone farther south, for fear of the Moors: and
the Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting, by reason of its
barrenness; and, indeed, both forsaking it because of the pro-
digious numbers of tigers, lions, leopards, and other furious
creatures which harbour there; so that the Moors use it
for their hunting only, where they go like an army, two or
three thousand men at a time : and, indeed, for near a

ROBINSON CRUSOR

hundred miles together upon this coast, we saw nothing but
a waste uninhabited country by day, and heard nothing but
howling and roaring of wild beasts by night.
Once or twice in the day-time, I thought I saw the Pico
of Teneriffe, being the high top of the Mountain Teneriffe
in the Canaries; and had a great mind to venture out, in
hopes of reaching thither; but having tried twice, I was
forced in again by contrary winds, the sea also going too
high for my little vessel; so I resolved to pursue my first
design, and keep along the shore.
Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water, after
we had left this place ; and once in particular, being early
in the morning, we came to an anchor under a little point of
land, which was pretty high; and the tide beginning to flow,
we lay still to go farther in. Xury, whose eyes were more
about him than it seems mine were, calls softly to me, and
tells me that we had best go farther off the shore ; for,"
says he, look yonder lies a dreadful monster on the side
of that hillock, fast asleep." I looked where he pointed,
and saw a dreadful monster indeed, for it was a terrible great
lion that lay on the side of the shore, under the shade of a
piece of the hill that hung as it were a little over him.
"Xury," says I, you shall go on shore and kill him."
Xury looked frighted, and said, Me kill! he eat me at
one mouth ;" one mouthful he meant.. However, I said no
more to the boy, but bade him lie still, and I took our
biggest gun, which was almost musket bore, and loaded it
with a good charge of powder, and with two slugs, and laid
it down ; then I loaded another gun with two bullets ; and
the third (for we had three pieces) I loaded with five
smaller bullets. I took the best aim I could with the first
piece to have shot him in the head, but he lay so with his
leg raised a little above his nose that the slugs hit his leg
about the knee, and broke the bone. He started up, growl-
ing at first, but finding his leg broken, fell down again;
and then got up upon three legs, and gave the most hideous
roar that ever I heard. I was a little surprised that I had

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

not hit him on the head; however, I took up the second
piece immediately, and though he began to move off, fired
again, and shot him in the head, and had the pleasure to
see him drop and make but little noise, but lie struggling
for life. Then Xury took heart, and would have me let
him go on shore. Well, go," said I : so the boy jumped
into the water, and taking a little gun in one hand, swam
to shore with the other hand, and coming close to the crea-
ture, put the muzzle of the piece to his ear, and shot him
in the head again, which despatched him quite.
This was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and
I was very sorry to lose three charges of powder and shot
upon a creature that was good for nothing to us. However,
Xury said he would have some of him; so he comes on
board, and asked me to give him the hatchet. "For what,
Xury ? said I. Me cut off his head," said he. How-
ever, Xury could not cut off his head, but he cut off a
foot, and brought it with him, and it was a monstrous great
one.
I bethought myself, however, that perhaps the skin of
him might, one way or other, be of some value to us;
and I resolved to take off his skin if I could. So Xury
and I went to work with him; but Xury was much the
better workman at it, for I knew very ill how to do it.
Indeed, it took us both up the whole day, but at last we
got off the hide, and spreading it on the top of our cabin,
the sun effectually dried it in two days' time, and it after-
wards served me to lie upon.
After this, we made on to the southward continually for
ten or twelve days, living very sparingly on our provisions,
which began to abate very much, and going no oftener to
the shore than we were obliged for fresh water. My design
in this was, to make the River Gambia or Senegal, that is
to say, anywhere about the Cape de Verd, where I was in
hopes to meet with some European ship; and if I did not,
I knew not what course I had to take, but to seek for the
islands, or perish there among the Negroes. I knew that

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

all the ships from Europe, which sailed either to the coast
of Guinea or to Brazil, or to the East Indies, made this
Cape, or those islands; and, in a word, I put the whole
of my fortune upon this single point, either that I must
meet with some ship, or must perish.
When I had pursued this resolution about ten days
longer, as I have said, I began to see that the land was
inhabited; and in two or three places, as we sailed by, we
saw people stand upon the shore to look at us; we could
also perceive they were quite black, and naked. I was
once inclined to have gone on shore to them; but Xury
was my better counsellor, and said to me, No go, no go."
However, I hauled in nearer the shore that I might talk to
them, and I found they ran along the shore by me a good
way : I observed they had no weapons in their hands,
except one, who had a long slender stick, which Xury said
was a lance, and that they could throw them a great way
with good aim ; so I kept at a distance, but talked with
them by signs as well as I could; and particularly made
signs for something to eat; they beckoned to me to stop
my boat, and they would fetch me some meat. Upon this,
I lowered the top of my sail, and lay by, and two of them
ran up into the country, and in less than half an hour
came back, and brought with them two pieces of dry flesh
and some corn, such as is the produce of their country; but
we neither knew what the one or the other was: however,
we were willing to accept it, but how to come at it was our
next dispute, for I would not venture on shore to them,
and they were as much afraid of us : but they took a safe
way for us all, for they brought it to the shore and laid it
down, and went and stood a great way off till we fetched it
on board, and then came close to us again.
We made signs of thanks to them, for we had nothing
to make them amends ; but an opportunity offered that
very instant to oblige them wonderfully : for while we were
lying by the shore, came two mighty creatures, one pur-
suing the other (as we took it) with great fury from the

ROBINSON CRUSOE

mountains towards the sea; whether it was the male pur-
suing the female, or whether they were in sport or in rage,
we could not tell, any more than we could tell whether it
was usual or strange, but I believe it was the latter;
because, in the first place, those ravenous creatures seldom
appear but in the night; and, in the second place, we
found the people terribly frighted, especially the women.
The man that had the lance or dart did not fly from them,
but the rest did; however, as the two creatures ran directly
into the water, they did not offer to fall upon any of the
Negroes, but plunged themselves into the sea, and swam
about, as if they had come for their diversion: at last one
of them began to come nearer our boat than at first I
expected ; but I lay ready for him, for I had loaded my
gun with all possible expedition, and bade Xury load both
the others. As soon as he came fairly within my reach, I
fired, and shot him directly in the head : immediately he
sank down into the water, but rose instantly, and plunged
up and down, as if he was struggling for life, and so
indeed he was: he immediately made to the shore;
but between the wound, which was his mortal hurt, and
the strangling of the water, he died just before he reached
the shore.
It is impossible to express the astonishment of these
poor creatures at the noise and fire of my gun; some of
them were even ready to die for fear, and fell down as dead
with the very terror; but when they saw the creature dead,
and sunk in the water, and that I made signs to them to
come to the shore, they took heart and came, and began
to search for the creature. I found him by his blood
staining the water: and by the help of a rope, which I
slung round him, and gave the Negroes to haul, they
dragged him on shore, and found that it was a most curious
leopard, spotted, and fine to an admirable degree; and the
Negroes held up their hands with admiration, to think
what it was I had killed him with.
The other creature, frighted with the flash of fire and

ROBINSON ORUSOE.

the noise of the gun, swam on shore, and ran up directly
to the mountains from whence they came; nor could I, at
that distance, know what it was. I found quickly the
Negroes wished to eat the flesh of this creature, so I was
willing to have them take it as a favour from me; which,
when I made signs to them that they might take him, they
were very thankful for. Immediately they fell to work
with him; and though they had no knife, yet, with a
sharpened piece of wood, they took off his skin as readily,
and much more readily, than we could have done with a
knife. They offered me some of the flesh, which I declined,
pointing out that I would give it them; but made signs
for the skin, which they gave me very freely, and brought
me a great deal more of their provisions, which, though I
did not understand, yet I accepted. I then made signs to
them for some water, and held out one of my jars to them,
turning it bottom upward, to show that it was empty, and
that I wanted to have it filled. They called immediately
to some of their friends, and there came two women, and
brought a great vessel made of earth, and burnt, as I
supposed, in the sun; this they set down to me, as before,
and I sent Xury on shore with my jars, and filled them all
three. The women were as naked as the men.
I was now furnished with roots and corn, such as it was,
and water; and leaving my friendly Negroes, I made for-
ward for about eleven days more, without offering to go
near the shore, till I saw the land run out a great length
into the sea, at about the distance of four or five leagues
before me; and the sea being very calm, I kept a large
offing to make this point. At length, doubling the point,
at about two leagues from the land, I saw plainly land on
the other side, to seaward : then I concluded, as it was
most certain indeed, that this was the Cape de Verd, and
those the islands called, from thence, Cape de Verd
Islands. However, they were at a great distance, and I
could not well tell what I had best to do ; for if I should be
takenwith a fresh of wind, I might neither reach one or other

ROBINSOIN 0a0SOB

In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped into
the cabin, and sat down, Xury having the helm; when,
on a sudden, the boy cried out, Master, master, a ship
with a sail !" and the foolish boy was frighted out of his
wits, thinking it must needs be some of his master' hips
sent to pursue us, but I knew we were far enough ant of
their reach. I jumped out of the cabin, and immediately
saw, not only the ship, but that it was a Portugaese sip ;
and, as I thought, was bound to the coast of Guinea, for
Negroes. But, when I observed the course she steered, I
was soon convinced they were bound some other way, and
did not design to come any nearer to the shore: upon
which I stretched out to sea as much as I could, resolving
to speak with them if possible.
With all the sail I could make, I found I should not
be able to come in their way, but that they would be gone
by before I could make any signal to them: but after
I had crowded to the utmost, and began to despair, they,
it seems, saw, by the help of their glasses, that it was
some European boat, which they supposed must belong
to some ship that was lost; so they shortened sail to let
me come up. I was encouraged with this, and as I had
my patron's ancient on board, I made a waft of it to them,
for a signal of distress, and fired a gun, both which they
saw; for they told me they saw the smoke, though they
did not hear the gun. Upon these signals they very kindly
brought to, and lay by for me; and in about three hours'
time I came up with them.
They asked me what I was, in Portuguese, and in
Spanish, and in French, but I understood none of them;
but, at last, a Scotch sailor, who was on board, called to
me: and I answered him, and told him I was an English-
man, that I had made my escape out of slavery from the
Moors, at Sallee; they then bade me come on board, and
very kindly took me in, and'all my goods.
It was an inexpressible joy to me, which any one will
believe, that I was thus delivered, as I esteemed it, from

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

such a miserable and almost hopeless condition as I was
in; and I immediately offered all I had to the captain of
the ship, as a return for my deliverance; but he gene-
rously told me, he would take nothing from me, but that
all I had should be delivered safe to me, when I came to
the Brazils. For," says he, I have saved your life on
no other terms than I would be glad to be saved myself;
and it may, one time or other, be my lot to be taken up in
the same condition. Besides," said he, "when I carry you
to the Brazils, so great a way from your own country, if I
should take from you what you have, you will be starved
there, and then I only take away that life I have given.
No, no," says he; Seignor Inglese (Mr. Englishman),
" I will carry you thitherin charity, and those things will
help to buy your subsistence there, and your passage home
again."
As he was charitable in this proposal, so he was just in
the performance to a tittle ; for he ordered the seamen, that
none should touch anything that I had : then he took every-
thing into his own possession, and gave me back an exact
inventory of them, that I might have them, even to my
three earthen jars.
As to my boat, it was a very good one; and that he saw,
and told me he would buy it of me for his ship's use ; and
asked me what I would have for it ? I told him, he had
been so generous to me in everything, that I could not
offer to make any price of the boat, but left it entirely to
him: upon which, he told me he would give me a note of
hand to pay me eighty pieces of eight for it at Brazil; and
when it came there, if any one offered to give more, he
would make it up. He offered me also sixty pieces of eight
more for my boy Xury, which I was loath to take ; not that
I was unwilling to let the captain have him, but I was very
loath to sell the poor boy's liberty, who had assisted me so
faithfully in procuring my own. However, when I let him
know my reason, he owned it to be just, and offered me
this medium, that he would give the boy an obligation to

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

set him free in ten years, if he turned Christian: upon this,
and Xury saying he was willing to go to him, I let the
captain have him.
We had a very good voyage to the Brasils, and I arrived
in the Bay de Todos los Santos, or All Saints' Bay, in
about twenty-two days after. And now I was once more
delivered from the most miserable of all conditions of life;
and what to do next with myself I was to consider.
The generous treatment the captain gave me, I can never
enough remember: he would take nothing of me for my
passage, gave me twenty ducats for the leopard's skin, and
forty for the lion's skin, which I had in my boat, and
caused everything I had in the ship to be punctually delivered
to me; and what I was willing to sell, he bought of me;
such as the case of bottles, two of my guns, and a piece of
the lump of bees'-wax,-for I had made candles of the
rest: in a word, I made about two hundred and twenty
pieces of eight of all my cargo ; and with this stock, I went
on shore in the Brasils.
I had not been long here, before I was recommended to
the house of a good, honest man, like himself, who had an
ingenio, as they call it (that is, a plantation and a sugar-
house). I lived with him some time, and acquainted
myself, by that means, with the manner of planting and
making of sugar; and seeing how well the planters lived,
and how they got rich suddenly, I resolved, if I could get
a licence to settle there, I would turn planter among them ;
resolving, in the mean time, to find out some way to get
my money, which I had left in London, remitted to me.
To this purpose, getting a kind of letter of naturalization,
I purchased as much land that was uncured as my money
would reach, and formed a plan for my plantation and set-
tlement ; such a one as might be suitable to the stock
which I proposed to myself to receive from England.
I had a neighbour, a Portuguese, of Lisbon, but born of
English parents, whose name was Wells, and in much such
circumstances as I was. I call him my neighbour, because

ROBINSON CIRUSOe.

his plantation lay next to mine, and we went on very
sociably together. My stock was but low, as well as his;
and we rather planted for food than anything else, for about
two years. However, we began to increase, and our land
began to come into order ; so that the third year we planted
some tobacco, and made each of us a large piece of ground
ready for planting canes in the year to come; but we both
wanted help ; and now I found, more than before, I had
done wrong in parting with my boy Xury.
But, alas for me to do wrong that never did right, was
no great wonder. I had no remedy but to go on : I had
got into an employment quite remote to my genius, and
directly contrary to the life I delighted in, and for which I
forsook my father's house, and broke through all his good
advice ; nay, I was coming into the very middle station, or
upper degree of low life, which my father advised me to
before, and which, if I resolved to go on with, I might as
well have staid at home, and never have fatigued myself in
the world, as I had done; and I used often to say to
myself, I could have done this as well in England, among
my friends, as have gone five thousand miles off to do it
among strangers and savages, in a wilderness, and at such
a distance as never to hear from any part of the world that
had the least knowledge of me.
In this manner I used to look upon my condition with
the utmost regret. I had nobody to converse with, but now
and then this neighbour; no work to be done, but by the
labour of my hands ; and I used to say, I lived just like a
man cast away upon some desolate island, that had nobody
there but himself. But how just has it been; and how
should all men reflect, that when they compare their present
conditions with others that are worse, Heaven may oblige
them to make the exchange, and be convinced of their
former felicity by their experience : I say, how just has it
been, that the truly solitary life I reflected on, in an island
of mere desolation, should be my lot, who had so often
unjustly compared it with the life which I then led, in

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

which, had I continued, I had, in all probability, been
exceeding prosperous and rich.
I was, in some degree, settled in my measures for carry-
ing on the plantation, before my kind friend, the captain
of the ship that took me up at sea, went back ; for the ship
remained there, in providing his lading, and preparing for
his voyage, nearly three months; when, telling him what
little stock I had left behind me in London, he gave me
this friendly and sincere advice :-" Seignor Inglese," says
he (for so he always called me), if you will give me
letters, and a procuration in form to me, with orders to the
person who has your money in London, to send your effects
to Lisbon, to such persons as I shall direct, and in such
goods as are proper for this country, I will bring you the
produce of them, God willing, at my return; but, since
human affairs are all subject to changes and disasters,I
would have you give orders but for one hundred pounds
sterling, which, you say, is half your stock, and let the
hazard be run for the first; so that, if it come safe, you
may order the rest the same way; and, if it miscarry, you
may have the other half to have recourse to for your
supply."
This was so wholesome advice, and looked so friendly,
that I could not but be convinced it was the best course I
could take ; so I accordingly prepared letters to the gentle-
woman with whom I had left my money, and a procuration
to the Portuguese captain, as he desired.
I wrote the English captain's widow a full account of all
my adventures ; my slavery, escape, and how I had met
with the Portuguese captain at sea, the humanity of his
behaviour, and what condition I was now in, with all other
necessary directions for my supply; and when this honest
captain came to Lisbon, he found means, by some of the
English merchants there, to send over, not the order only,
but a full account of my story to a merchant at London,
who represented it effectually to her; whereupon she not
only delivered the money, but, out of her own pocket, sent
D2

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

the Portugal captain a very handsome present for his
humanity and charity to me.
The merchant in London, vesting this hundred pounds
in English goods, such as the captain had written for, sent
them directly to him at Lisbon, and he brought them all
safe to me to the Brasils; among which, without my direc-
tion (for I was too young in my business to think of them),
he had taken care to have all sorts of tools, iron work, and
utensils, necessary for my plantation, and which were of
great use to me.
When this cargo arrived, I thought my fortunes made,
for I was surprised with the joy of it; and my good
steward, the captain, had laid out the five pounds, which
my friend had sent him for a present for himself, to purchase
and bring me over a servant, under bond for six years' ser-
vice, and would not accept of any consideration, except a
little tobacco, which I would have him accept, being of my
own produce.
Neither was this all; for my goods being all English
manufacture, such as cloths, stuffs, baize, and things par-
ticularly valuable and desirable in the country, I found
means to sell them to a very great advantage ; so that I
might say, I had more than four times the value of my first
cargo, and was now infinitely beyond my poor neighbour-
I mean in the advancement of my plantation; for the first
thing I did, I bought me a negro slave, and an European
servant also: I mean another besides that which the captain
brought me from Lisbon.
But as abused prosperity is oftentimes made the very
means of our greatest adversity, so was it with me. I went
on the next year with great success in my plantation: I
raised fifty great rolls of tobacco on my own ground, more
than I had disposed of for necessaries among my neigh-
hours; and these fifty rolls, being each of above a hundred
weight, were well cured, and laid by against the return of
the fleet from Lisbon: and now increasing in business and
in wealth, my head began to be full of projects and under-

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

takings beyond my reach; such as are, indeed, often the
ruin of the best heads in business. Had I continued in
the station I was now in, I had room for all the happy
things to have yet befallen me, for which my father so
earnestly recommended a quiet, retired life, and of which he
had so sensibly described the middle station of life to be full
of; but other things attended me, and I was still to be the
wvilful agent of all my own miseries ; and particularly, to
increase my fault, and double the reflections upon myself,
which in my future sorrows I should have leisure to make,
all these miscarriages were procured by my apparent obsti-
nate adhering to my foolish inclination of wandering abroad,
and pursuing that inclination, in contradiction to the clearest
views of doing myself good in a fair and plain pursuit of those
prospects, and those measures of life, which nature and Pro
evidence concurred to present me with, and to make my duty.
As I had once done thus in my breaking away from my
parents, so I could not be content now, but I must go and
leave the happy view I had of being a rich and thriving
man in my new plantation, only to pursue a rash and
immoderate desire of rising faster than the nature of the
thing admitted; and thus I cast myself down again into
the deepest gulf of human misery that ever man fell into, or
perhaps could be consistent with life, and a state of health
in the world.
To come, then, by the just degrees, to the particulars
of this part of my story :-You may suppose, that having
now lived almost four years in the Brazils, and beginning
to thrive and prosper very well upon my plantation, I had
not only learned the language, but had contracted acquaint-
ance and friendship among my fellow-planters, as well as
among the merchants at St. Salvador, which was our port;
and that, in my discourses among them, I had frequently
given them an account of my two voyages to the coast of
Guinea; the manner of trading with the Negroes there,
and how easy it was to purchase upon the coast for trifles-
such as beads, toys, knives, scissors, hatchets, bits of glasS

.OBINSON CRUSOE.

and the like-not only gold dust, Guinea grains, elephants'
teeth, &c., but Negroes, for the service of the Brazils, in
great numbers.
They listened always very attentively to my discourses on
these heads, but especially to that part which related to the
buying Negroes ; which was a trade, at that time, not only
not far entered into, but, as far as it was, had been carried
on by assientos, or permission of the kings of Spain and
Portugal, and engrossed in the public stock; so that few
Negroes were brought, and those excessively dear.
It happened, being in company with some merchants and
planters of my acquaintance, and talking of those things
very earnestly, three of them came to me the next morn-
ing, and told me they had been musing very much upon
what I had discoursed with them of the last night, and
they came to make a secret proposal to me; and, after
enjoining me secrecy, they told me that they had a mind
to fit out a ship to go to Guinea ; that they had all plan-
tations as well as I, and were straitened for nothing so
much as servants ; that as it was a trade that could not be
carried on, because they could not publicly sell the Negroes
when they came home, so they desired to make but one
voyage, to bring the Negroes on shore privately, and divide
them among their ovn plantations; and, in a word, the
question was, whether I would go their supercargo in the
ship, to manage the trading part upon the coast of Guinea ;
and they o~rced me that I should have my equal share of
the Negroes, without providing any part of the stock.
This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it
been made to any one that had not had a settlement and a
plantation of his own to look af'er, which was in a fair way
of coming to be very considerable, and with a good stock
upon it. But for me, that was thus entered and esta-
blished, and had nothing to do L .t to go on as I had begun,
for three or four years more, and to have sent for the other
hundred pounds from England ; and who in that time, and
with that little addition, could scarce have failed of beirg

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

worth three or four thousand pounds sterling, and that
increasing too-for me to think of such a voyage was the
most preposterous thing that ever man in such circumstances
could be guilty of.
But I, that was born to be my own destroyer, could no
more resist the offer, than I could restrain my first rambling
designs, when my father's good counsel was lost upon me.
In a word, I told them I would go with all my heart, if
they would undertake to look after my plantation in my
absence, and would dispose of it to such as I should direct,
if I miscarried. This they all engaged to do, and entered
into writings or covenants to do so ; and I made a formal
will, disposing of my plantation and effects in case of my
death, making the captain of the ship that had saved my
life, as before, my universal heir, but obliging him to dispose
of my effects as I had directed in my will ; one-half of the
produce being to himself, and the other to be shipped in
England.
In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my
effects, and to keep up my plantation : had I used half as
Lauch prudence to have looked into my own interest, and
have made a judgment of what I ought to have done and
not to have done, I had certainly never gone away from so
prosperous an undertaking, leaving all the probable views
of a thriving circumstance, and gone upon a voyage to sea,
attended with all its common hazards, to say nothing of
the reasons I had to expect particular misfortunes to myself.
But I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dictates of
my fancy rather than my reason; and, accordingly, the
ship being fitted out, and the cargo furnished, and all things
done, as by agreement, by my partners in the voyage, I
went on board in an evil hour, the 1st of September, 1659,
being the same day eight years that I went from my father
and mother at Hull, in order to act the rebel to their autho-
rity, and the fool to my own interests.
Our ship was about one hundred and twenty tons burden,
carried six guns, and fourteen men, besides the master, his

GCUINSON CRUSOE.

boy, and myself; we had on board no large cargo of goods,
except of such toys as were fit for our trade with the
Negroes, such as beads, bits of glass, shells, and other
trifles, especially little looking-glasses, knives, scissors,
hatchets, and the like.
The same day I went on board we set sail, standing
away to the northward upon our own coast, with design to
stretch over for the African coast, when we came about ten
or twelve degrees of northern latitude, which, it seems,
was the manner of course in those days. We had very
good weather, only excessively hot, all the way upon our
own coast, till we came to the height of Cape St. Augus-
tino ; from whence, keeping further off at sea, we lost sight
of land, and steered as if we were bound for the isle Fer-
nando de Noronha, holding our course N.E. by N., and
leaving those isles on the east. In this course we passed
the line in about twelve days' time, and were, by our last
observation, in seven degrees twenty-two minutes northern
latitude, when a violent tornado, or hurricane, took us quite
out of our knowledge. It began from the south-east, came
about to the north-west, and then settled in the north-east;
from whence it blew in such a terrible manner, that for
twelve days together we could do nothing but drive, and,
scudding away before it, let it carry us whither ever fate and
the fury of the winds directed ; and, during these twelve
days, I need not say that I expected every day to be swal-
lowed up; nor, indeed, did any in the ship expect to save
their lives.
In this distress we had, besides the terror of the storm,
one of our men die of the calenture, and one man and the
boy washed overboard. About the twelfth day, the weather
abating a little, the master made an observation as well as
he could, and found that he was in about eleven degrees
north latitude, but that he was twenty-two degrees of lon-
gitude difference west from Cape St. Augustino ; so that
he found he was upon the coast of Guiana, or the north
part of Brasil, beyond the river Amazons, towards that of

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

the river Oroonoque, commonly called the Great River;
and began to consult with me what course he should take,
for the ship was leaky, and very much disabled, and he was
going directly back to the coast of Brasil.
I was positively against that; and looking over the charts
of the sea-coast of America with him, we concluded there
was no inhabited country for us to have recourse to, till we
came within the c rcle of the Caribbee islands, and there-
fore resolved to stand away for Barbadoes; which, by
keeping off at sea, to avoid the in-draft of the bay or gulf
of Mexico, we might easily perform, as we hoped, in about
fifteen days' sail; whereas we could not possibly make our
voyage to the coast of Africa without some assistance both
to our ship and to ourselves.
With this design, we changed our course, and steered
away N.W. by W., in order to reach some of our English
islands, where I hoped for relief; but our voyage was
otherwise determined ; for, being in the latitude of twelve
degrees eighteen minutes, a second storm came upon us,
which carried us away with the same impetuosity west-
ward, and drove us so out of the way of all human com-
merce, that had all our lives been saved as to the sea, we
were rather in danger of being devoured by savages, than
ever returning to our own country.
In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of
our men early in the morning cried out, Land! and
we had no sooner run out of the cabin to look out, in hopes
of seeing whereabouts in the world we were, than the ship
struck upon a sand, and in a moment, her motion being so
stopped, the sea broke over her in such a manner, that we
expected that we should all have perished immediately;
and we were immediately driven into our close quarters, to
shelter us from the very foam and spray of the sea.
It is not easy for any one who has not been in the like
condition to describe or conceive the consternation of men
in such circumstances. We knew nothing where we were,
or upon what land it was we were driven; whether'an

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

island or the main,-whether inhabited or not inhabited;
as the rage of the wind was still great, though rather less
than at first, we could not so much as hope to have the
ship hold many minutes without breaking into pieces,
unless the winds, by a kind of miracle, should turn imme-
diately about. In a word, we sat looking upon one another,
and expecting death every moment, and every man, accor-
dingly, preparing for another world ; for there was little or
nothing more for us to do in this ; that which was our
present comfort, and all the comfort we had, was that, con-
trary to our expectation, the ship did not break yet, and
that the master said the wind began to abate.
Now, though we thought that the wind did a little abate,
yet the ship having thus struck upon the sand, and stick-
ing too fast for us to expect her getting off, we were in a
dreadful condition indeed, and had nothing to do but to
think of saving our lives as well as we could. We had a
boat at our stern just before the storm, but she was first
staved by dashing against the ship's rudder, and in the
next place, she broke away, and either sunk, or was driven
off to sea; so there was no hope from her. We had another
boat on board, but how to get her off into the sea was a
doubtful thing; however, there was no time to debate, for
we fancied the ship would break in pieces every minute,
and some told us she was actually broken already.
In this distress, the mate of our vessel laid hold of the
boat, and with the help of the rest of the men, got her
slung over the ship's side; and getting all into her, let go,
and committed ourselves, being eleven in number, to God's
mercy and the wild sea: for though the storm was abated
considerably, yet the sea ran dreadfully high upon the
shore, and might be well called den wild zce, as the Dutch
call the sea in a storm.
And now our case was very dismal indeed ; for we all
saw plainly, that the sea went so high, that the boat could
not live, and that we should be inevitably drowned. As
to making sail, we had none, nor, if we had, could we have

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

done anything with it; so we worked at the oar towards
the land, though with heavy hearts, like men going to
execution ; for we all knew that when the boat came nearer
the shore, she would be dashed in a thousand pieces by the
breach of the sea. However, we committed our souls to
God in the most earnest manner; and the wind driving us
towards the shore, we hastened our destruction with our own
hands, pulling as well as we could towards land.
What the shore was, whether rock or sand, whether steep
or shoal, we knew not; the only hope that could rationally
give us the least shadow of expectation, was, if we might
find some bay or gulf, or the mouth of some river, where by
great chance we might have run our boat in, or got under
the lee of the land, and perhaps made smooth water. But
there was nothing like this appeared; but as we made
nearer and nearer the shore, the land looked more frightful
than the sea.
After we had rowed or rather driven about a league and a
half, as we reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came
rolling astern of us, and plainly bade us expect the coup de
grace. In a word, it took us with such a fury, that it
overset the boat at once ; and separating us, as well from
the boat as from one another, gave us not time to say, 0
God !" for we were all swallowed up in a moment.
Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which .I
felt, when I sunk into the water: for though I swam very
vwll, yet I could not deliver myself from the waves so as to
draw breath, till that wave having driven me, or rather
carried me, a vast way on towards the shore, and having
Qipcnt itself, went back, and left me upon the land almost
dry, but half dead with the water I took in. I had so
much presence of mind, as well as breath left, that seeing
myself nearer the main land than I expected, I got upon
my feet, and endeavoured to make on towards the land as
fast as I could, before another wave should return and take
me up again; but I soon found it was impossible to avoid
it; for I saw the sea come after me as high as a great hill,

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

and as furious as an enemy, which I had no means or
strength to contend with : my business was to hold my
breath, and raise myself upon the water, if I could; and
so, by swimming, to preserve my breathing and pilot myself
towards the shore, if possible, my greatest concern now
being, that the sea, as it would carry me a great way
towards the shore when it came on, might not carry me
back again with it when it gave back towards the sea.
The wave that came upon me again, buried me at once
twenty or thirty feet deep in its own body, and I could feel
myself carried with a mighty force and swiftness towards
the shore a very great way ; but I held my breath, and
assisted myself to swim still forward with all my might.
I was ready to burst with holding my breath, when as I
felt myself raising up, so, to my immediate relief, I found
my head and hands shoot out above the surface of the water ;
and though it was not two seconds of time that I could
keep myself so, yet it relieved me greatly, gave me breath
and new courage. I was covered again with water a good
while, but not so long but I held it out; and finding the
water had spent itself, and began to return, I struck for-
ward against the return of the waves, and felt ground again
with my feet. I stood still a few moments, to recover breath,
and till the waters went from me, and then took to my
heels and ran, with what strength I had, further towards
the shore. But neither would this deliver me from the fury
of the sea, which came pouring in after me again; and
twice more I was lifted up by the waves and carried for-
wards as before, the shore being very flat.
The last time of these two had well nigh been fatal to
me; for the sea having hurried me along, as before, landed
me, or rather dashed me, against a piece of a rock, and
that with such force, as it left me senseless, and indeed
helpless, as to my own deliverance ; for the blow taking
my side and breast, beat the breath, as it were, quite out
of my body; and had it returned again immediately, I
must have been strangled in the water; but I recovered a

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

little before the return of the waves, and seeing I should
be covered again with the water, I resolved to hold fast by
a piece of the rock, and so to hold my breath, if possible,
till the wave went back. Now, as the waves were not so
high as at first, being nearer land, I held my hold till the
wave abated, and then fetched another run, which brought
me so near the shore, that the next wave, though it went
over me, yet did not so swallow me up as to carry me away ;
and the next run I took, I got to the main land; where,
to my great comfort, I clambered up the cliffs of the shore,
and sat me down upon the grass, free from danger, and
quite out of the reach of the water.
I was now landed, and safe on shore, and began to look
up and thank God that my life was saved, in a case wherein
there was, some minutes before, scarce any room to hope.
I believe it is impossible to express, to the life, what the
ecstacies and transports of the soul are, when it is so saved,
as I may say, out of the very grave : and I do not wonder
now at the custom, when a malefactor, who has the halter
about his neck, is tied up, and just going to be turned off,
and has a reprieve brought to him; I say, I do not won-
der that they bring a surgeon with it, to let him blood that
very moment they tell him of it, that the surprise may not
drive the animal spirits from the heart, and overwhelmed
him.
For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first.
I walked about on the shore, lifting up my hands ; and
my whole being, as I may say, wrapt up in a contempla-
tion of my deliverance; making a thousand gestures and
motions, which I cannot describe; reflecting upon all my
comrades that were drowned, and that there should not be
one soul saved but myself; for, as for them, I never saw
them afterwards, or any sign of them, except three of their
hats, one cap, and two shoes that were not fellows.
I cast my eyes to the stranded vessel, when, the breach
and froth of the sea being so big, I could hardly see it, it

ROBINSON ClUSOE.

lay so far off; and considered, Lord how was i possible
I could get on shore ?
After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable part
of my condition, I began to look round me, to see what
kind of place I was in, and what was next to be done:
and I soon found my comforts abate, and that, in a word,
I had a dreadful deliverance: for I was wet, had no clothes
to shift me, nor anything either to eat or drink, to comfort
me ; neither did I see any prospect before me, but that of
perishing with hunger, or being devoured by wild beasts:
and that which was particularly afflicting to me was, that I
had no weapon, either to hunt and kill any creature for my
sustenance, or to defend myself against any other creature
that might desire to kill me for theirs. In a word, I had
nothing about me but a knife, a tobacco-pipe, and a little
tobacco in a box. This was all my provision; and this
threw me into terrible agonies of mind, that for a while, I
ran about like a madman. Night coming upon me, I
began, with a heavy heart, to consider what would be my
lot if there were any ravenous beasts in that country, as at
night they always come abroad for their prey.
All the remedy that offered to my thoughts, at that time,
was to get up into a thick bushy tree, like a fir, but thorny,
which grew near me, and where I resolved to sit all night,
and consider the next day what death I should die, for as
vet I saw no prospect of life. I walked about a furlong
from the shore,, to see if I could find any fresh water to
drink, which I did to my great joy; and having drank,
and put a little tobacco in my mouth to prevent hunger,
I went to the tree, and getting up into it, endeavoured to
place myself so that if I should sleep I might not fall.
And having cut me a short stick, like a truncheon, for my
defence, I took up my lodging; and having been cx-
cessively fatigued, I fell fast asleep, and slept as comfort-
ably as, I believe, few could have done in my condition,
and found myself more refreshed with it than, I think, I
ever was on such an occasion.

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

When I waked it was broad day, the weather clear, and
the storm abated, so that the sea did not rage and swell as
before; but that which surprised me most was, that the
ship was lifted off in the night from the sand where she lay,
by the swelling of the tide, and was driven up almost as far
as the rock which I at first mentioned, where I had been
so bruised by the wave dashing me against it. This being
within about a mile from the shore where I was, and the
ship seeming to stand upright still, I wished myself on
ioard, that at least I might save some necessary things for
my use.
When I came down from my apartment in the tree,
I looked about me again, and the first thing I found was
the boat which lay, as the wind and sea had tossed her up,
upon the land, about two miles on my right hand. I
walked as far as I could upon the shore to have got to her;
but found a neck, or inlet, of water between me and the
boat which was about half a mile broad; so I came back
for the present, being more intent upon getting at the
ship, where I hoped to find something for my present
subsistence.
A little after noon, I found the sea very calm, and the
tide ebbed so far out, that I could come within a quarter
of a mile ef the ship. And here I found a fresh renewing
of my grief; for I saw evidently, that if we had kept on
board, we had been all safe : that is to say, we had all got
safe on shore, and I had not been so miserable as to be left
entirely destitute of all comfort and company, as I now
was. This forced tears to my eyes again; but as there
was little relief in that, I resolved, if possible, to get to the
ship; so I pulled off my clothes, for the weather was hot
to extremity, and took the water. But when I came to
the ship, my difficulty was still greater to know how
to get on board; for, as she lay aground, and high out of
the water, there was nothing within my reach to lay hold
of. I swam round her twice, and the second time I spied
a small piece of rope, which I wondered I did not see

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

at first, hung down by the fore-chains so low, that with
great difficulty I got hold of it, and by the help of that
rope I got up into the forecastle of the ship. Here I found
that the ship was bulged, and had a great deal of water in
her hold; but that she lay so on the side of a bank of hard
sand, or rather earth, that her stern lay lifted up upon the
bank, and her head low, almost to the water. By this
means all her quarter was free, and all that was in that
part was dry; for you may be sure my first work was to
search, and to see what was spoiled and what was free.
And, first, I found that all the ship's provisions were dry
and untouched by the water, and being very well disposed
to eat, I went to the bread-room, and filled my pockets
with biscuit, and eat it as I went about other things, for
I had no time to lose. I also found some rum in the great
cabin, of which I took a large dram, and which I had,
indeed, need enough of to spirit me for what was before
me. Now I wanted nothing but a boat, to furnish myself
with many things which I foresaw would be very necessary
to me.
It was in vain to sit still and wish for what was not to be
had; and this extremity roused my application. We had
several spare yards, and two or three large spars of wood,
and a spare top-mast or two in the ship : I resolved to fall
to work with these, and I flung as many of them overboard
as I could manage for their weight, tying every one with a
rope, that they might not drive away. When this was
done, I went down the ship's side and pulling them to me,
I tied four of them together at both ends, as well as I
could, in the form of a raft, and laying two or three short
pieces of plank upon them, cross-ways, I found I could
walk upon it very well, but that it was not able to bear
any great weight, the pieces being too light. So I went to
work, and with the carpenter's saw I cut a spare top-mast
into three lengths, and added them to my raft, with a great
deal of labour and pains. But the hope of furnishing
myself with necessaries, encouraged me to go beyond what

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

I should have been able to have done upon another
occasion.
My raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable
weight. My next care was what to load it with, and how
to preserve what I laid upon it from the surf of the sea:
but I was not long considering this. I first laid all the
plank or boards upon it that I could get, and having con-
sidered well what I most wanted, I first got three of the
seamen's chests, which I had broken open and emptied,
and lowered them down upon my raft; the first of these I
filled with provisions, viz., bread, rice, three Dutch cheeses,
five pieces of dried goat's flesh (which we lived much upon),
and a little remainder of European corn, which had been
laid by for some fowls which we brought to sea with us,
but the fowls were killed. There had been some barley
and wheat together; but, to my great disappointment,
I found afterwards that the rats had eaten or spoiled it all.
As for liquors, I found several cases of bottles belonging to
our skipper, in which were some cordial waters; and, in
all, about five or six gallons of rack. These I stowed by
themselves, there being no need to put them into the chest,
nor any room for them. While I was doing this, I found
the tide began to flow, though very calm; and I had the
mortification to see my coat, shirt, and waistcoat, which I
had left on the shore, upon the sand, swim away. As for
my breeches, which were only linen, and open-knee'd, I
awam on board in them and my stockings. However, this
set me on rummaging for clothes, of which I found enough,
but took no more than I wanted for present use, for I had
other things which my eye was more upon ;-as, first, tools
to work with on shore. And it was after long searching
that I found out the carpenter's chest, which was, indeed,
a very useful prize to me, and much more valuable than a,
ship-lading of gold would have been at that time. I got it
down to my raft, whole as it was, without losing time to
look into it, for I knew in general what it contained.
My next care was for some ammunition and arms.
E

ROBLNSON CRUSOE.

There were two very good fowling-pieces in the great cabin,
and two pistols. These I secured first, with some powder-
horns and a small bag of shot, and two old rusty swords
I knew there were three barrels of powder in the ship, but
knew not where our gunner had stowed them; but with
much search I found them, two of them dry and good, the
third had taken water. Those two I got to my raft, with
the arms. And now I thought myself pretty well freighted,
and began to think how I should get to shore with them,
having neither sail, oar, nor rudder ; and the least cap-full
of wind would have overset all my navigation.
I had three encouragements; 1st, a smooth, calm sea;
2ndly, the tide rising, and setting in to the shore; 3rdly, what
little wind there was blew me towards the land. And thus,
having found two or three broken oars belonging to the
boat, and besides the tools which were in the chest, two
saws, an axe, and a hammer : with this cargo I put to sea.
For a mile, or thereabouts, my raft went very well, only
that I found it drive a little distant from the place where I
had landed before; by which I perceived that there was
some indraft of the water, and consequently, I hoped to
find some creek or river there, which I might make use of
as a port to get to land with my cargo.
As I imagined, so it was. There appeared before me a
little opening of the land, and I found a strong current of
the tide set into it; so I guided my raft, as well as I could,
to keep in the middle of the stream.
But here I had like to have suffered a second shipwreck,
which, if I had, I think, verily, would have broken my
heart; for, knowing nothing of the coast, my raft ran
aground at one end of it upon a shoal, and not being
aground at the other end, it wanted but a little that all
my cargo had slipped off towards the end that was afloat,
and so fallen into the water. I did my utmost, by setting
my back against the chests, to keep them in their places,
but could not thrust off the raft with all my strength;
neither durst I stir from the posture I was in; but holding

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

up the chests with all my might, I stood in that manner
near half an hour, in which time the rising of the water
brought me a little more upon a level; and, a little after,
the water still rising, my raft floated again, and I thrust
her off with the oar I had into the channel, and then
driving up higher, I at length found myself in the mouth
of a little river, with land on both sides, and a strong cur-
rent or tide running up. I looked on both sides for a
proper place to get to shore, for I was not willing to be
driven too high up the river: hoping, in time, to see some
ship at sea, and therefore resolved to place myself as near
the coast as I could.
At length I spied a little cove on the right shore of the
creek, to which, with great pain and difficulty, I guided
my raft, and at last got so near, that reaching ground with
my oar, I could thrust her directly in. But here I had
like to have dipped all my cargo into the sea again; for
that shore lying pretty steep-that is to say, sloping,-
there was no place to land, but where one end of my float,
if it ran on shore, would lie so high, and the other sink
lower, as before, that it would endanger my cargo again.
All that I could do, was to wait till the tide was at the
highest, keeping the raft with my oar like an anchor, to
hold the side of it fast to the shore, near a flat piece of
ground, which I expected the water would flow over; and
so it did. As soon as I found water enough, for my raft
drew about a foot of water, I thrust her on upon that flat
piece of ground, and there fastened or moored hor, by
sticking my two broken oars into the ground,-one on one
side, near one end, and one on the other side, near the
other end; and thus I lay till the water ebbed away, and
left my raft and all my cargo safe on shore.
My next work was to view the country, and seek a pro-
per place for my habitation, and where to stow my goods,
to secure them from whatever might happen. Where I
was, I yet knew not; whether on the continent or an
island; whether inhabited or not inhabited; whether it
E2

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

danger of wild beasts or not. There was a hill not above
a mile from me, which rose up very steep and high, and
which seemed to overtop some other hills, which lay as in
a ridge from it, northward. I took out one of the fowling-
pieces, and one of the pistols, and a horn of powder ; and
thus armed, I travelled for discovery up to the top of that
hill, where after I had with great labour and difficulty got
to the top, I saw my fate, to my great affliction, viz., that
I was in an island environed on every side by the sea: no
land to be seen except some rocks, which lay a great way
off; and two small islands, less than this, which lay about
three leagues to the west.
I found also that the island I was in was barren, and, as
I saw good reason to believe, uninhabited except by wild
beasts, of whom, however, I saw none. Yet I saw abun-
dance of fowls, but knew not their kinds; neither when I
killed them, could I tell what was fit for food, and what
not. At my coming back, I shot at a great bird, which I
saw sitting upon a tree, on the side of a great wood. I
believe it was the first gun that had been fired there since
the creation of the world. I had no sooner fired, than
from all the parts of the wood there arose an innumerable
number of fowls, of many sorts, making a confused scream-
ing and crying, every one according to his usual note, but
not one of them of any kind that I knew. As for the
creature I killed, I took it to be a kind of a hawk, its colour
and beak resembling it, but it had no talons or claws more
than common. Its flesh was carrion, and fit for nothing.
Contented with this discovery, I came back to my raft,
and fell to work to bring my cargo on shore, which took me
up the rest of that day : what to do with myself at night
I knew not, nor indeed where to rest, for I was afraid to
lie down on the ground, not knowing but some wild beast
might devour me, though, as I afterwards found, there was
really no need for those fears.
However, as well as I could, I barricaded myself round
with the chests and boards that I had brought on shore,

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

and made a kind of hut for that night's lodging. As for
food, I yet saw not which way to supply myself, except
that I had seen two or three creatures, like hares, run out
of the wood where I shot the fowl.
I now began to consider that I might yet get a great
many things out of the ship, which would be useful to me,
and particularly some of the rigging and sails, and such
other things as might come to land; and I resolved to
make another voyage on board the vessel, if possible. And
as I knew that the first storm that blew must necessarily
break her all in pieces, I resolved to set all other things
apart, till I had got everything out of the ship that I
could get. Then I called a council-that is to say, in my
thoughts-whether I should take back the raft ; but this
appeared impracticable : so I resolved to go as before, when
the tide was down; and I did so, only that I stripped
before I went from my hut, having nothing on but a
chequered shirt, a pair of linen drawers, and a pair of
pumps on my feet.
I got on board the ship as before, and prepared a second
raft; and, having had experience of the first, I neither
made this so unwieldy, nor loaded it so hard, but yet J
brought away several things very useful to me; as, first,
in the carpenter's stores, I found two or three bags full of
nails and spikes, a great screw-jack, a dozen or two of
hatchets, and, above all, that most useful thing called a
grindstone. All these I secured, together with several things
belonging to the gunner, particularly two or three iron
crows, and two barrels of musket bullets, seven muskets,
and another fowling-piece, with some small quantity of
powder more ; a large bagful of small shot, and a great roll
of sheet-lead; but this last was so heavy I could not hoist
it up to get it over the ship's side.
Besides these things, I took all the men's clothes that I
could find, and a spare fore-top sail, a hammock, and some
bedding; and with this I loaded my second raft, and
brought them all safe on shore, to my very great comfort.

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

I was under some apprehension, during my absence from
the land, that at least my provisions might be devoured on
shore : but when I came back, I found no sign of any
visitor; only there sat a creature like a wild cat, upon one
of the chests, which, when I came towards it, ran away a
little distance, and then stood still. She sat very com-
posed and unconcerned, and looked full in my face, as if
she had a mind to be acquainted with me. I presented
my gun to her, but, as she did not understand it, she was
perfectly unconcerned at it, nor did she offer to stir away ;
upon which I tossed her a bit of biscuit, though, by the
way, I was not very free of it, for my store was not great:
however, I spared her a bit, I say, and she went to it,
smelled at it, and ate it, and looked (as if pleased) for
more; but I thanked her, and could spare no more: so
she marched off.
Having got my second cargo on shore,-though I was
obliged to open the barrels of powder, and bring them by
parcels, for they were too heavy, being large casks,-I
went to work to make me a little tent, with the sail, and
some poles which I cut for that purpose: and into this
tent I brought everything that I knew would spoil either
with rain or sun; and I piled all the empty chests and
casks up in a circle round the tent, to fortify it from any
suduen attempt, either from man or beast.
When I had done this, I blocked up the door of the
tent with some boards within, and an empty chest set up
on end without ; and spreading one of the beds upon the
ground, laying my two pistols just at my head, and my
gun at length by me, I went to bed for the first time, and
slept very quietly all night, for I was very weary and
heavy ; for the night before I had slept little, and had
laboured very hard all day, to fetch all those things from
the ship, and to get them on shore.
I had the biggest magazine of all kinds now that ever
was laid up, I believe, for one man : but I was not satis-
fied still, for while the ship sat upright in that posture, I

ROBINSON CRUSOE. 55

thought I ought to get everything out of her that I
could: so every day, at low water, I went on board, and
brought away something or other; but particularly the
third time I went, I brought away as much of the rigging
as I could, as also all the small ropes and rope twine I
could get, with a piece of spare canvass, which was to
mend the sails upon occasion, and the barrel of wet gun-
powder. In a word, I brought away all the sails first and
last; only that I was obliged to cut them in pieces, and
bring as much at a time as I could, for they were no more
useful to be sails, but as mere canvass only.
But that which comforted me more still, was, that last of
all, after I had made five or six such voyages as these, and
thought I had nothing more to expect from the ship that
was worth my meddling with ;-I say, after all this, I
found a great hogshead of bread, three large runlets of
rum, or spirits, and a box of sugar, and a barrel of fine
flour : this was surprising to me, because I had given over
expecting any more provisions, except what was spoiled by
the water. I soon emptied the hogshead of the bread, and
wrapped it up, parcel by parcel, in pieces of the sails,
which I cut out; and, in a word, I got all this safe on
shore also.
The next day I made another voyage, and now, having
plundered the ship of what was portable and fit to hand out, I
b2gan with the cables, cutting the great cable into pieces,
such as I could move, I got two cables and a hawser on
shore, with all the iron-work I could get; and having cut
down the spritsail-yard, and the mizen-yard, and every-
thing I could, to make a large raft, I loaded it with all
these heavy goods, and came away; but my good luck
began now to leave me; for this raft was so unwieldy, and
so overladen, that after I was entered the little cove, where
I had landed the rest of my goods, not being able to guide
it so handily as I did the other, it overset, and threw me
and all my cargo into the water; as for myself, it was no
great harm, for I was near the shore : but as to my cargo,

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

it was a great part of it lost, especially the iron, which 1
expected would have been of great use to me: however,
when the tide was out, I got most of the pieces of cable
ashore, and some of the iron, though with infinite labour;
for I had to dip for it into the water, a work which fatigued
me very much. After this, I went every day on board,
and brought away what I could get.
I had been now thirteen days on shore, and had been
eleven times on board the ship, in which time I had brought
away all that one pair of hands could well be supposed
capable to bring ; though I believe verily, had the calm
weather held, I should have brought away the whole ship,
piece by piece; but preparing the twelfth time to go on
board, I found the wind began to rise: however, at low
water I went on board, and though I thought I had rum-
maged the cabin so effectually, that nothing more could be
found, yet I discovered a locker with drawers in it, in one
of which I found two or three razors, and one pair of large
scissors, with some ten or a dozen of good knives and forks:
in another I found about thirty-six pounds value in money,
-some European coin, some Brazil, some pieces-of-eight,
some gold, and some silver.
I smiled to myself at the sight of this money : 0
drug !" said I aloud, "what art thou good for? Thou
art not worth to me,-no, not the taking off the ground :
one of those knives is worth all this heap: I have no
manner of use for thee ; e'en remain where thou art, and
go to the bottom, as a creature whose life is not worth
saving." However, upon second thoughts, I took it
away; and wrapping all in a piece of canvass, I began
to think of making another raft; but while I was pre-
paring this, I found the sky overcast, and the wind began
to rise, and in a quarter of an hour it blew a fresh
gale from the shore. It presently occurred to me, that it
was in vain to pretend to make a raft with the wind off
shore; and that it was my business to be gone before the
tide of flood began, otherwise I might not be able to reach

ROBINSON CRUSOF.

the shore at all. Accordingly, I let myself down into tle
water, and swam across the channel which lay between the
ship and the sands, and even that with difficulty enough,
partly with the weight of the things I had about me, and
partly from the roughness of the water; for the wind rose
very hastily, and before it was quite high water it blew a
storm.
But I had got home to my little tent, where I lay, with
all my wealth about me very secure. It blew very hard
all that night, and in the morning, when I looked out,
behold no more ship was to be seen I was a little sur-
prised, but recovered myself with this satisfactory reflection,
that I had lost no time, nor abated any diligence, to get
everything out of her that could be useful to me; and that,
indeed, there was little left in her that I was able to bring
away, if I had had more time.
I now gave over any more thoughts of the ship, or of
anything out of her, except what might drive on shore
from her wreck; as, indeed, divers pieces of her after-
wards did; but those things were of small use to me.
My thoughts were now wholly employed about securing
myself against either savages, if any should appear, or
wild beasts, if any were in the island; and I had many
thoughts of the method how to do this, and what kind of
dwelling to make,-whether I should make me a cave in
the earth, or a tent upon the earth; and, in short, I
resolved upon both; the manner and description of which,
it may not be improper to give an account of.
I soon found the place I was in was not fit for my
settlement, because it was upon a low, moorish ground,
near the sea, and I believed it would not be wholesome,
and more particularly because there was no fresh water
near it; so I resolved to find a more healthy and more
convenient spot of ground.
I consulted several things in my situation, which I
found would be proper for me: 1st, health and fresh water,
I just now mentioned: 2ndly, shelter from the heat of the

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

sun: 3rdly, security from ravenous creatures, whether men
or beasts: 4thly, a view to the sea, that if God sent any
ship in sight, I might not lose any advantage for my
deliverance, of which I was not willing to banish all my
expectation yet.
In search of a place proper for this, I found a little
plain on the side of a rising hill, whose front towards this
little plain was steep as a house-side, so that nothing
could come down upon me from the top. On the side of
the rock there was a hollow place, worn a little way in,
like the entrance or door of a cave; but there was not
really any cave, or way into the rock, at all.
On the flat of the green, just before this hollow place, I
resolved to pitch my tent. This plain was not above a
hundred yards broad, and about twice as long, and lay
like a green before my door; and, at the end of it,
descended irregularly every way down into the low ground
by the sea-side. It was on the N.N.W. side of the hill;
so that it was sheltered from the heat every day, till it
came to a W. and by S. sun, or thereabouts, which, in
those countries, is near the setting.
Before I set up my tent I drew a half-circle before the
hollow place, which took in about ten yards in its semi-
diameter, from the rock, and twenty yards in its diameter,
from its beginning and ending.
In this half-circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes,
driving them into the ground till they stood very firm like
piles, the biggest end being out of the ground above five
feet and a half, and sharpened on the top. The two rows
did not stand above six inches from one another.
Then I took the pieces of cable which I had cut in the
ship, and laid them in rows, one upon another, within the
circle, between these two rows of stakes, up to the top,
placing other stakes in the inside, leaning against them,
about two feet and a half high, like a spur to a post ; and
this fence was so strong, that neither man nor beast could
.get into it or over it. This cost me a great deal of time

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

and labour, especially to cut the piles in the woods, bring
them to the place, and drive them into the earth.
The entrance into this place I made to be, not by a door,
but by a short ladder to go over the top; which ladder,
when I was in, I lifted over after me; and so I was com-
pletely fenced in and fortified, as I thought, from all the
world, and consequently slept secure in the night, which
otherwise I could not have done ; though, as it appeared
afterwards, there was no need of all this caution Lom the
enemies that I apprehended danger from.
Into this fence, or fortress, with infinite labour, I carried
till my riches, all my provisions, ammunition, and stores,
of which you have the account above; and I made a large
tent, which, to preserve me from the rains, that in one
part of the year are very violent there, I made double, one
smaller tent within, and one larger tent above it; and
covered the uppermost with a large tarpaulin, which I had
saved among the sails.
And now I lay no more for a while in the bed which I
had brought on shore, but in a hammock, which was indeed
a very good one, and belonged to the mate of the ship.
Into this tent I brought all my provisions, and every-
thing that would spoil by the wet; and having thus
enclosed all my goods, I made up the entrance, which till
now I had left open, and so passed and repassed, as I said,
by a short ladder.
When I had done this, I began to work my way into the
rock, and bringing all the earth and stones that I dug down
out through my tent, I laid them up within my fence, in
the nature of a terrace, so that it raised the ground within
about a foot and a half; and thus I made me a cave,
just behind my tent, which served me like a cellar to my
house.
It cost me much labour and many days before all these
things were brought to perfection ; and, therefore, I must
go back to some other things which took up some of my
thoughts. At the same time it happened, after I had laid

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

my scheme for the setting up my tent, and making the
cave, that a storm of rain falling from a thick, dark cloud,
a sudden flash of lightning happened, and after that, a
great clap of thunder, as is naturally the effect of it. I
was not so much surprised with the lightning, as I was
with a thought which darted into my mind as swift as
the lightning itself: 0 my powder! My very heart sank
within me when I thought that, at one blast, all my pow-
der might be destroyed ; on which, not my defence only,
but the providing me food, as I thought, entirely depended.
I was nothing near so anxious about my own danger,
though, had the powder took fire, I should never have
known who had hurt me.
Such impression did this make upon me, that after the
storm was over, I laid aside all my works, my building and
fortifying, and applied myself to make bags and boxes, to
separate the powder, and to keep it a little and a little in
a parcel, in hope that whatever might come, it might not
all take fire at once ; and to keep it so apart, that it should
not be possible to make one part fire another. I finished
this work in about a fortnight; and I think my powder,
which in all was about two hundred and forty pounds
weight, was divided into not less than a hundred parcels.
As to the barrel that had been wet, I did not apprehend
any danger from that; so I placed it in my new cave,
which, in my fancy, I called my kitchen ; and the rest I
hid up and down in holes among the rocks, so that no wet
might come to it, marking very carefully where I laid it.
In the interval of time while this was doing, I went out
once at least every day with my gun, as well to divert
myself, as to see if I could kill anything fit for food; and,
as near as I could, to acquaint myself with what the island
produced. The first time I went out, I presently disco-
vered that there were goats in the island, which was a great
satisfaction to me; but then it was attended with this mis-
fortune to me, viz., that they were so shy, so subtle, and
so swift of foot, that it was the difficultest thing in the

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

world to come at them ; but I was not discouraged at this,
not doubting but I might now and then shoot one, as it
soon happened; for after I had found their haunts a little,
I laid wait in this manner for them: I observed if they
saw me in the valleys, though they were upon the rocks,
they would run away, as in a terrible fright; but if they
were feeding in the valleys, and I was upon the rocks,
they took no notice of me; from whence I concluded, that
by the position of their optics, their sight was so directed
downward, that they did not readily see objects that were
above them; so afterwards, I took this method,-I always
climbed the rocks first, to get above them, and then had
frequently a fair mark.
The first shot I made among these creatures, I killed a
she-goat, which had a little kid by her, which she gave
suck to, which grieved me heartily; for, when the old one
fell, the kid stood stock still by her, till I came and took
her up ; and not only so, but when I carried the old one
with me, upon my shoulders, the kid followed me quite to
my enclosure ; upon which, I laid down the dam, and took
the kid in my arms, and carried it over my pale, in hopes
to have bred it up tame; but it would not eat ; so I was
forced to kill it, and ate it myself. These two supplied
me with flesh a great while, for I eat sparingly, and saved
my provisions, my bread especially, as much as possibly I
could.
Having now fixed my habitation, I found it absolutely
necessary to provide a place to make a fire in, and fuel to
burn ; and what I did for that, as also how I enlarged my
cave, and what conveniences I made, I shall give a full
account of in its place ; but I must now give some little
account of myself, and of my thoughts about living,
which, it may well be supposed, were not a few.
I had a dismal prospect of my condition, for as I was
not cast away upon that island without being driven, as is
said, by a violent storm, quite out of the course of our
intended voyage, and a great way, viz., some hundreds of

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

leagues, out of the ordinary course of the trade of man-
kind, I had great reason to consider it as a determination
of Heaven, that in this desolate place, and in this desolate
manner, I should end my life. The tears would run plen-
tifully down my face when I made these reflections ; and
sometimes I would expostulate with myself why Providence
should thus completely ruin its creatures, and render them
so absolutely miserable; so without help, abandoned, so
entirely depressed, that it could hardly be rational to be
thankful for such a life.
But something always returned swift upon me to check
these thoughts, and to reprove me ; and particularly, one
day, walking with my gun in my hand, by the sea-side, I
was very pensive upon the subject of my present condition,
when reason, as it were, expostulated with me the other
way, thus: Well, you are in a desolate condition, it is
true; but, pray remember, where are the rest of you ?
Did not you come eleven of yon into the boat ? Where
are the ten ? Why were not they saved, and you lost ?
Why were you singled out? Is it better to be here or
there ?" And then I pointed to the sea. All evils are
to be considered with the good that is in them, and with
what worse attends them.
Then it occurred to me again, how well I was furnished
for my subsistence, and what would have been my case if
it had not happened (which was a hundred thousand to one)
that the ship floated from the place where she first struck,
and was driven so near to the shore, that I had time to get
all these things out of her; what would have been my
case, if I had been forced to have lived in the condition in
which I at first came on shore, without necessaries of life,
or necessaries to supply and procure them ? Particu-
larly," said I, aloud (though to myself), what should I
have done without a gun, without ammunition, without
any tools to make anything, or to work with, without
clothes, bedding, a tent, or any manner of covering?" and
that now I had all these to sufficient quantity, and was in

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

a fair way to provide myself in such a manner as to live
without my gun, when my ammunition was spent: so that
I had a tolerable view of subsisting, without any want, as
long as I lived; for I considered, from the beginning, how
I would provide for the accidents that might happen, and
for the time that was to come, even not only after my
ammunition should be spent, but even after my health and
strength should decay.
I confess, I had not entertained any notion of my am-
munition being destroyed at one blast,-I mean my powder
being blown up by lightning; and this made the thoughts
of it so surprising to me, when it lightened and thundered,
as I observed just now.
And now being to enter into a melancholy relation of a
scene of silent life, such, perhaps, as was never heard of in
the world before, I shall take it from its beginning, and
continue it in its order. It was, by my account, the 30th
of September, when, in the manner as above said, I first
set foot upon this horrid island; when the sun being to us
in its autumnal equinox, was almost just over my head:
for I reckoned myself, by observation, to be in the latitude
of nine degrees twenty-two minutes north of the line.
After I had been there about ten or twelve days, it came
into my thoughts that I should lose my reckoning of time
for want of books, and pen and ink, and should even for-
get the Sabbath days; but to prevent this, I cut with my
knife upon a large post, in capital letters; and making it
into a great cross, I set up on the shore where I first
landed, I came on shore here on the 30th of September,
1659."
Upon the sides of this square post I cut every day a
notch with my knife, and every seventh notch was as long
again as the rest, and every first day of the month, as long
again as that long one; and thus I kept my calendar, or
weekly, monthly, and yearly reckoning of time.
In the next place, we are to observe that among the
many things which I brought out of the ship, in the

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

several voyages which, as above mentioned, I made to it,
I got several things of less value, but not at all less useful
to me, which I omitted setting down before; as, in parti-
cular, pens, ink, and paper; several parcels in the cap-
tain's, mate's, gunner's, and carpenter's keeping; three or
four compasses, some mathematical instruments, dials,
perspectives, charts, and books of navigation; all which I
huddled together, whether I might want them or no: also
I found three very good Bibles, which came to me in my
cargo from England, and which I had packed up among
my things ; some Portuguese books also; and, among them,
two or three Popish prayer-books, and several other books,
all which I carefully secured. And I must not forget, that
we had in the ship a dog, and two cats, of whose eminent
history I may have occasion to say something in its place;
for I carried both the cats with me ; and as for the dog, he
jumped out of the ship of himself, and swam on shore to
me the day after I went on shore with my first cargo, and
was a trusty servant to me many years; I wanted nothing
that he could fetch me, nor any company that he could
make up to me; I only wanted to have him talk to me, but
that would not do. As I observed before, I found pens,
ink, and paper, and I husbanded them to the utmost; and
I shall show that while my ink lasted, I kept things very
exact, but after that was gone I could not, for I could not
make any ink by any means that I could devise.
And this put me in.mind that I wanted many things, not-
withstanding all that I had amassed together; and of these,
ink was one; as also a spade, pick-axe, and shovel, to dig
or remove the earth ; needles, pins, and thread: as for linen,
I soon learned to want that without much difficulty.
This want of tools made every work I did go on heavily;
and it was near a whole year before I had entirely finished
my little pale, or surrounded my habitation. The piles or
stakes, which were as heavy as I could well lift, were a
long time in cutting and preparing in the woods, and more,
by far, in bringing home ; so that I spent sometimes two

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

days in cutting and bringing home one of those posts, and
a third day in driving it into the ground ; for which pur-
pose, I got a heavy piece of wood at first, but at last
bethought myself of one of the iron crows; which, how-
ever, though I found it, made driving those posts or piles
very laborious and tedious work. But what need I have
been concerned at the tediousness of anything I had to do,
seeing I had time enough to do it in ? nor had I any other
employment, if that had been over, at least that I could
foresee, except the ranging the island to seek for food,
which I did, more or less, every day.
I now began to consider seriously my condition, and the
circumstances I was reduced to; and I drew up the state of
my affairs in writing, not so much to leave them to any
that were to come after me, for I was likely to have but
few heirs, as to deliver my thoughts from daily poring
upon them, and afflicting my mind: and as my reason
began now to master my despondency, I began to comfort
myself as well as I could, and to set the good against the
evil, that I might have something to distinguish my case
from worse ; and I stated very impartially, like debtor and
creditor,-the comforts I enjoyed against the miseries I
suffered, thus:-

EvIL
I am cast upon a horrible,
desolate island, void of all
hope of recovery.
I am singled out and sepa-
rated, as it were, from all
the world, to be miserable.

I am divided from man-
kind,-a solitaire; one ba-
nished from human society.

GooD.
But I am alive; and not
drowned, as all my ship's
company were.
But I am singled out,
too, from all the ship's crew,
to be spared from death; and
he that miraculously saved
me from death, can deliver
me from this condition.
But I am not starved, and
perishing on a barren place,
affording no sustenance.
F

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

EVIL.
I have not clothes to cover
me.

I am without any defence,
or means to resist any vio-
lence of man or beast.

I have no soul to speak
to or relieve me.

GOOD.
But I am in a hot climate,
where, if I had clothes, 1
could hardly wear them.
But I am cast on an island
where I see no wild beasts to
hurt me, as I saw on the coast
of Africa: andwhat if I had
been shipwrecked there ?
But God wonderfully sent
the ship in near enough to the
shore, that I have got out as
many necessarythings as will
either supply my wants or
enable me to supply myself,
even as long as I live.

Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony,
that there was scarce any condition in the world so mise-
rable, but there was something negative, or something
positive, to be thankful for in it: and let this stand as a
direction, from the experience of the most miserable of all
conditions in this world: that we may always find in it
something to comfort ourselves from, and to set, in the
description of good and evil, on the credit side of the
account.
Having now brought my mind a little to relish my con-
dition, and given over looking out to sea, to see if I could
spy a ship,-I say, giving over these things, I began to
apply myself to arrange my way of living, and to make
things as easy to me as I could.
I have already described my habitation, which was a tent
under the side of a rock, surrounded with a strong pale of
posts and cables ; but I might now rather call it a wall,
for I raised a kind of wall up against it of turfs, about two
feet thick on the outside : and after some time (I think it
was a year and a half) I raised rafters from it, leaning to

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

the rock, and thatched or covered it with boughs of trees,
and such things as I could get, to keep out the rain ; which
I found at some times of the year very violent.
I have already observed how I brought all my goods into
this pale, and into the cave which I had made behind me.
But I must observe, too, that at first this was a confused
heap of goods, which, as they lay in no order, so they took
up all my place ; I had no room to turn myself: so I set
myself to enlarge my cave, and work farther into the earth;
for it was a loose sandy rock, which yielded easily to the
labour I bestowed on it: and so when I found I was pretty
safe as to beasts of prey, I worked sideways, to the
right hand into the rock; and then turning to the right
again, worked quite out, and made me a door to come out
on the outside of my pale or fortification.
This gave me not only egress and regress, as it was a
back way to my tent and to my storehouse, but gave me
room to store my goods.
And now I began to apply myself to make such necessary
things as I found I most wanted, particularly a chair and
a table ; for without these I was not able to enjoy the few
comforts I had in the world ; I could not write, or eat, or
do several things with so much pleasure, without a table:
so I went to work. And here I must needs observe, that
as reason is the substance and origin of the mathematics,
so by stating and squaring everything by reason, and by
making the most rational judgment of things, every man
may be, in time, master of every mechanic art. I had
never handled a tool in my life; and yet, ih time, by labour,
application, and contrivance, I found, at last, that I wanted
nothing but I could have made it, especially if I had had
tools. However, I made abundance of things, even with-
out tools; and some with no more tools than an adze and
a hatchet, which perhaps were never made that way before,
and that with infinite labour. For example, if I wanted a
a board, I had no other way but to cut down a tree, set it
on an edge before me, and hew it flat on either side with
F2

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

my axe, till I had brought it to be thin as a plank, and
then dub it smooth with my adze. It is true, by this
method I could make but one board out of a whole tree;
but this I had no remedy for but patience, any more than I
had for the prodigious deal of time and labour which it
took me up to make a plank or board: but my time or labour
was little worth, and so it was as well employed one way as
another.
However, I made me a table and a chair, as I observed
above, in the first place; and this I did out of the short
pieces of boards that I brought on my raft from the ship.
But when I had wrought out some boards as above, I
made large shelves, of the breadth of a foot and a half,
one over another all along one side of my cave, to lay all
my tools, nails, and iron-work on; and, in a word, to
separate everything at large into their places, that I might
come easily at them. I knocked pieces into the wall of
the rock to hang my guns and all things that would hang
up: so that had my cave been to be seen, it looked like
a general magazine of all necessary things; and I had
everything so ready at my hand, that it was a great
pleasure to me to see all my goods in such order, and
especially to find my stock of all necessaries so great.
And now it was that I began to keep a journal of every
day's employment; for, indeed, at first, I was in too much
hurry, and not only hurry as to labour, but in too much
discomposure of mind; and my journal would have been
full of many dull things: for example, I must have said
thus: "Sept. 30th.-After I had got to shore, and had
escaped drowning, instead of being thankful to God for my
deliverance, having first vomited, with the great quantity
of salt water which had got into my stomach, and recover-
ing myself a little, I ran about the shore wringing my
hands and beating my head and face; exclaiming at my
misery, and crying out, 'I was undone, undone!' till,
tired and faint, I was forced to lie down on the ground to
repose; but durst not sleep, for fear of being devoured."

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

Some days after this, and after I had been on board the
ship, and got all that I could out of her, yet I could not
forbear getting up to the top of a little mountain, and
looking out to sea, in hopes of seeing a ship; then fancy,
at a vast distance, I spied a sail, please myself with the
hopes of it, and then after looking steadily, till I was almost
blind, lose it quite, and sit down and weep like a child,
and thus increase my misery by my folly.
But having gotten over these things in some measure,
and having settled my household stuff and habitation,
made me a table and a chair, and all as handsome about
me as I could, I began to keep my journal; of which I
shall here give you the copy (though in it will be told all
these particulars over again) as long as it lasted; for
having no more ink, I was forced to leave it off.
THE JOURNAL.
September 30, 1659.-I, poor, miserable Robinson
Crusoe, being shipwrecked, during a dreadful storm, in
the offing, came on shore on this dismal, unfortunate
island, which I called The Island of Despair;" all the
rest of the ship's company being drowned, and myself
almost dead.
All the rest of the day I spent in afflicting myself at
the dismal circumstances I was brought to; viz., I had
neither food, house, clothes, weapon, nor place to fly to:
and, in despair of any relief, saw nothing but death before
me: either that I should be devoured by wild beasts, mur-
dered by savages, or starved to death for want of food.
At the approach of night I slept in a tree, for fear of
wild creatures; but slept soundly, though it rained all
night.
October 1.-In the morning I saw, to my great surprise,
the ship had floated with the high tide, and was driven on
shore again much nearer the island; which as it was some
comfort, on one hand, for seeing her sit upright, and not
broken to pieces, I hoped, if the wind abated, I might get

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

on board, and get some food and necessaries out of her for
my relief; so, on the other hand, it renewed my grief at
the loss of my comrades, who, I imagined, if we had all
stayed on board, might have saved the ship, or, at least,
that they would not have been all drowned, as they were;
and that, had the men been saved, we might perhaps have
built us a boat out of the ruins of the ship, to have carried
us to some other part of the world. I spent great part of
this day in perplexing myself on these things; but, at
length, seeing the ship almost dry, I went upon the sand
as near as I could, and then swam on board. This day
also it continued raining, though with no wind at all.
From the 1st of October to the 24th.-All these days
entirely spent in many several voyages to get all I could
out of the ship, which I brought on shore, every tide of
flood, upon rafts. Much rain also, in the days, though
with some intervals of fair weather; but it seems this was
the rainy season.
Oct. 20.-I overset my raft, and all the goods I had
got upon it; but being in shoal water, and the things
being chiefly heavy, I recovered many of them when the
tide was out.
Oct. 25.-It rained all night and all day, with some
gusts of wind ; during which time the ship broke in pieces,
the wind blowing a little harder than before, and was no
more to be seen, except the wreck of her, and that only at
low water. I spent this day in covering and securing the
goods which I had saved, that the rain might not spoil
them.
Oct. 26.-I walked about the shore almost all day, to
find out a place to fix my habitation, greatly concerned to
secure myself from any attack in the night, either from
wild beasts or men. Towards night, I fixed upon a proper
place, under a rock, and marked out a semicircle for my
encampment; which I resolved to strengthen with a work,
wall, or fortification, made of double piles, lined within
with cables, and without with turf.

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

From the 26th to the 30th, I worked very hard in
carrying all my goods to my new habitation, though some
part of the time it rained exceedingly hard.
The 31st, in the morning, I went out into the island
with my gun, to see for some food, and discover the
country; when I killed a she-goat, and her kid followed
me home, which I afterwards killed also because it would
not feed.
November 1.-I set up my tent under a rock, and lay
there for the first night; making it as large as I could,
with stakes driven in to swing my hammock upon.
Nov. 2.-I set up all my chests and boards, and the
pieces of tilaber which made my rafts, and with them
formed a fence round me, a little within the place I had
marked out for my fortification.
SNov. 3.-I went out with my gun, and killed two fowls
like ducks, which were very good food. In the afternoon
went to work to make me a table.
Nov. 4.-This morning I began to order my times of
work, of going out with my gun, time of sleep, and time
of diversion; viz., every morning I walked out with my
gun for two or three hours, if it did not rain ; then em-
ployed myself to work till about eleven o'clock; then eat
what I had to live on; and from twelve till two I lay
down to sleep, the weather being excessively hot; and
then, in the evening, to work again. The working part of
this day and of the next were wholly employed in making
my table, for I was yet but a very sorry workman, though
time and necessity made me a complete natural mechanic
soon after, as I believe they would do any one else.
Nov. 5.-This day, went abroad with my gun and my
dog, and killed a wild cat; her skin pretty soft, but her
flesh good for nothing ; every creature that I killed I took
off the skins and preserved them. Coming back by the
sea-shore, I saw many sorts of sea-fowls, which I did not
understand; but was surprised, and almost frightened,
with two or three seals, which, while I was gazing at, not

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

well knowing what they were, got into the sea, and escaped
me for that time.
Nov. 6.-After my morning walk, I went to work with
my table again, and finished it, though not to my liking;
nor was it long before I learned to mend it.
Nov. 7.-Now it began to be settled fair weather. The
7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and part of the 12th (for the 11th
was Sunday), I took wholly up to make me a chair, and
with much ado brought it to a tolerable shape, but never
to please me; and even in the making I pulled it in pieces
several times.
Note.-I soon neglected my keeping Sundays; for,
omitting my mark for them on my post, I forgot which
was which.
Nov. 13.-This day it rained, which refreshed me ex-
ceedingly, and cooled the earth ; but it was accompanied
with terrible thunder and lightning, which frighted me
dreadfully, for fear of my powder. As soon as it was
over, I resolved to separate my stock of powder into as
many little parcels as possible, that it might not be in
danger.
Nov. 14, 15, 16.-These three days I spent in making
little square chests, or boxes, which might hold about a
pound, or two pounds at most, of powder; and so, putting
the powder in, I stowed it in places as secure and remote
from one another as possible. On one of these three days,
I killed a large bird that was good to eat, but 1 knew not
what to call it.
Nov. 17.-This day I began to dig behind my tent into
the rock, to make room for my further convenience.
Note.-Three things I wanted exceedingly for this
work; viz., a pickaxe, a shovel, and a wheelbarrow, or
basket ; so I desisted from my work, and began to con-
sider how to supply that want, and make me some tools.
As for the pickaxe, I made use of the iron crows, which
were proper enough, though heavy; but the next thing
was a shovel, or spade ; this was so absolutely necessary,

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

that, indeed, I could do nothing effectually without it;
but what kind of one to make I knew not.
Nov. 18.-The next day, in searching the woods, I
found a tree of that wood, or like it, which, in the Brazils,
they call the iron-tree, for its exceeding hardness ; of this,
with great labour, and almost spoiling my axe, I cut a
piece, and brought it home, too, with difficulty enough, for
it was exceeding heavy. The excessive hardness of the
wood, and my having no other way, made me a long while
upon this machine, for I worked it effectually by little and
little into the form of a shovel or spade ; the handle exactly
shaped like ours in England, only that the board part having
no iron shod upon it at bottom, it would not last me so long ;
however, it served well enough for the uses which I had
occasion to put it to; but never was a shovel, I believe,
made after that fashion, or so long in making.
I was still deficient, for I wanted a basket, or a wheel-
barrow. A basket I could not make by any means, having
no such things as twigs that would bend to make wicker-
ware-at least, none yet found out; and as to a wheel-
barrow, I fancied I could make all but the wheel; but that
I had no notion of; neither did I know how to go about
it; besides, I had no possible way to make the iron gud-
geons for the spindle or axis of the wheel to run in ; so I
gave it over, and so, for carrying away the earth which I
dug out of the cave, I made me a thing like a hod, which
the labourers carry mortar in, when they serve the brick-
layers. This was not so difficult to me as the making the
shovel; and yet this and the shovel, and the attempt which
I made in vain to make a wheelbarrow, took me up no less
than four days, I mean always excepting my morning walk
with my gun, which I seldom failed, and very seldom failed
also bringing home something fit to eat.
Nov. 23.- My other work having now stood still,
because of my making these tools, when they were finished
I went on, and working every day, as my strength and
time allowed, I spent eighteen days entirely in widening

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

and deepening my cave, that it might hold my goods
commodiously.
Note.-During all this time, I worked to make this
room, or cave, spacious enough to accommodate me as a
warehouse, or magazine, a kitchen, a dining-room, and a
cellar. As for my lodging, I kept to the tent; except
that sometimes, in the wet season of the year, it rained so
hard, that I could not keep myself dry, which caused me
afterwards to cover all my place within my pale with long
poles, in the form of rafters, leaning against the rock, and
load them with flags and large leaves of trees, like a thatch.
December 10.-I began now to think my cave or vault
finished, when on a sudden (it seems I had made it too
large) a great quantity of earth fell down from the top and
one side ; so much that, in short, it frighted me, and not
without reason, too; for if I had been under it, I had
never wanted a grave-digger. I had now a great deal of
work to do over again, for I had the loose earth to carry
out; and, which was of more importance, I had the ceil-
ing to prop up, so that I might be sure no more would
come down.
Dec. 11.-This day I went to work with it accordingly,
and got two shores or posts pitched upright to the top,
with two pieces of boards across over each post; this I
finished the next day; and setting more posts up with
boards, in about a week .more I had the roof secured; and
the posts, standing in rows, served me for partitions to
part off the house.
Dec. 17.-From this day to the 20th I placed shelves,
and knocked up nails on the posts, to hang everything up
that could be hung up; and now I began to be in some
order within doors.
Dec. 20.-Now I carried everything into the cave, and
began to furnish my house, and set up some pieces of
boards like a dresser, to order my victuals upon; but boards
began to be very scarce with me: also I made me another
table.

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

Dec. 24.-Much rain all night and all day. no stirring
out.
Dec. 25.-Rain all day.
Dec. 26.-No rain, and the earth much cooler than
before, and pleasanter.
Dec. 27.-Killed a young goat, and lamed another so
that I caught it, and led it home in a string; when I had
it at home, I bound and splintered up its leg, which was
broke.
N.B.-I took such care of it that it lived, and the leg
grew well and as strong as ever; but by my nursing it so
long it grew tame, and fed upon the little green at my
door, and would not go away. This was the first time
that I entertained a thought of breeding up some tame
creatures, that I might have food when my powder and
shot was all spent.
Dec. 28, 29, 30, 31.-Great heats, and no breeze, so
that there was no stirring abroad, except in the evening,
for food; this time I spent in putting all my things in
order within doors.
January 1.-Very hot still: but I went abroad early
and late with my gun, and lay still in the middle of the
day. This evening, going farther into the valleys which
lay towards the centre of the island, I found there were
plenty of goats, though exceedingly shy, and hard to come
at ; however, I resolved to try if I could not bring my dog
to hunt them down.
Jan. 2.-Accordingly, the next day I went out with
my dog, and set him upon the goats ; but I was mistaken,
for they all faced about upon the dog, and he knew his
danger too well, for he would not come near them.
Jan. 3.-I began my fence, or wall; which, being still
jealous of my being attacked by somebody, I resolved to
make very thick and strong.
N.B.-This wall being described before, I purposely omit
what was said in the journal; it is sufficient to observe
that I was no less time than from the 3rd of January to

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

the 14th of April working, finishing, and perfecting this
wall, though it was no more than about twenty-four yards
in length, being a half-circle, from one place in the rock to
another place, about eight yards from it, the door of the
cave being in the centre behind it.
All this time I worked very hard, the rains hindering me
many days, nay, sometimes weeks together ; but I thought
I should never be perfectly secure till this wall was finished;
and it is scarce credible what inexpressible labour every-
thing was done with, especially the bringing piles out of the
woods, and driving them into the ground ; for I made them
much bigger than I needed to have done.
When this wall was finished, and the outside double-
fenced, with a turf wall raised up close to it, I persuaded
myself that if any people were to come on shore there, they
would not perceive anything like a habitation; and it was
very well I did so, as may be observed hereafter, upon a
very remarkable occasion.
During this time I made my rounds in the woods for
game every day, when the rain permitted me, and made
frequent discoveries in these walks of something or other
to my advantage; particularly I found a kind of wild
pigeons, which build, not as wood-pigeons in a tree, but
rather as house-pigeons, in the holes of the rocks ; and taking
some young ones, I endeavoured to breed them up tame,
and did so; but when .they grew older they flew away,
which perhaps was at first for want of feeding them, for I
had nothing to give them; however, I frequently found
their nests, and got their young ones, which were very
good meat. And now, in the managing my household
affairs, I found myself wanting in many things, which I
thought at first it was impossible for me to make ; as,
indeed, with some of them it was: for instance, I could
never make a cask to be hooped. I had a small runlet or
two, as I observed before ; but I could never arrive at the
capacity of making one by them, though I spent many
weeks about it; I could neither put in the heads, or join

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

the staves so true to one another as to make them hold
water; so I gave that also over. In the next place, I was at
a great loss for candles; so that as soon as ever it was dark,
which was generally by seven o'clock, I was obliged to go to
bed. I remembered the lump of bees'-wax with which I made
candles in my African adventure ; but I had none of that
now; the only remedy I had was, that when I had killed
a goat I saved the tallow, and with a little dish made of
clay, which I baked in the sun, to which I added a wick
of some oakum, I made me a lamp ; and this gave me
light, though not a clear steady light like a candle. In
the middle of all my labours it happened that, rummaging
my things, I found a little bag, which, as I hinted before,
had been filled with corn for the feeding of poultry,-not
for this voyage, but before, as I suppose, when the ship
came from Lisbon. The little remainder of corn that had
been in the bag was all devoured with the rats, and I saw
nothing in the bag but husks and dust; and being willing
to have the bag for some other use (I think it was to put
powder in, when I divided it for the fear of the lightning,
or some such use), I shook the husks of corn out of it on
one side of my fortification, under the rock.
It was a little before the great rains just now mentioned
that I threw this stuff away, taking no notice, and not so
much as remembering that I had thrown anything there,
when, about a month after, or thereabouts, I saw some few
stalks of something green shooting out of the ground,
which I fancied might be some plant I had not seen; but
I was surprised, and perfectly astonished, when, after a
little longer time, I saw about ten or twelve ears come out,
which were perfect green barley, of the same kind as our
European-nay, as our English barley.
It is impossible to express the astonishment and confu-
sion of my thoughts on this occasion ; I had hitherto acted
upon no religious foundation at all; indeed, I had very
few notions of religion in my head, nor had entertained
any sense of anything that had befallen me, otherwise than

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

as chance, or, as we lightly say, what pleases God, without so
much as inquiring into the end of Providence in these
things, or his order in governing events for the world. But
after I saw barley grow there, in a climate which I knew
was not proper for corn, and especially that I knew not how
it came there, it startled me strangely, and I began to
suggest that God had miraculously caused his grain to
grow without any help of seed sown, and that it was so
directed purely for my sustenance on that wild, miserable
place.
This touched my heart a little, and brought tears out of
my eyes, and I began to bless myself that such a prodigy
of nature should happen upon my account; and this was
the more strange to me, because I saw near it still, all
along by the side of the rock, some other straggling stalks,
which proved to be stalks of rice, and which I knew, because
I had seen it grow in Africa, when I was ashore there.
I not only thought these the pure productions of Provi-
dence for my support, but not doubting that there was
more in the place, I went all over that part of the island
where I had been before, peering in every corner, and under
every rock, to see for more of it, but I could not find any.
At last it occurred to my thoughts, that I shook a bag of
chickens' meat out in that place; and then the wonder began
to cease ; and I must confess, my religious thankfulness to
God's providence began to abate, too, upon the discover-
ing that all this was nothing but what was common;
though I ought to have been as thankful for so strange
and unforeseen a providence, as if it had been miraculous;
for it was really the work of Providence to me, that should
order or appoint that ten or twelve grains of corn should
remain unspoiled, when the rats had destroyed all the rest,
as if it had been dropped from heaven ; as also, that I
should throw it out in that particular place, where, it being
in the shade of a high rock, it sprang up immediately;
whereas, if I had thrown it anywhere else, at that time, it
had been burnt up and destroyed.

ROBINSON 3RtSOE.

I carefully saved the ears of this corn, you may be sure,
in their season, which was about the end of June; and,
laying up every corn, I resolved to sow them all again,
hoping, in time, to have some quantity, sufficient to supply
me with bread. But it was not till the fourth year that I
could allow myself the least grain of this corL to eat, and
even then but sparingly, as I shall say afterwards, in its
order; for I lost all that I sowed the first season, by not
observing the proper time; for I sowed it just before the
dry season, so that it never came up at all, at least not as
it would have done: of which in its place.
Besides this barley, there were, as above, twenty or thirty
stalks of rice, which I preserved with the same care and for
the same use, or to the same purpose, to make me bread,
or rather food; for I found ways to cook it without baking,
though I did that also after some time.
But to return to my Journal:-
I worked excessively hard these three or four months, to
get my wall done; and the 14th of April, I closed it up,
contriving to go into it, not by a door, but over the wall,
by a ladder, that there might be no sign on the outside of
my habitation.
April 16.-I finished the ladder; so I went up the
ladder to the top, and then pulled it up after me, and let it
down in the inside: this was a complete inclosure to me;
for within I had room enough, and nothing could come at
me from without, unless it could first mount my wall.
The very next day after this wall was finished, I had
almost had all my labour overthrown at once, and myself
killed. The case was thus :-As I was busy in the inside,
behind my tent, just at the entrance into my cave, I was
terribly frighted with a most dreadful surprising thing
indeed : for, all on a sudden, I found the earth come crum-
bling down from the roof of my cave, and from the edge of
the hill over my head, and two of the posts I had set up
in the cave cracked in a frightful manner. I was heartily
scared ; but thought nothing of what was really the cause,

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

only thinking that the top of my cave was fallen in, as
some of it had done before: and for fear I should be buried
in it, I ran forward to my ladder, and not thinking myself
safe there neither, I got over my wall for fear of the pieces
of the hill, which I expected might roll down upon me. I
had no sooner stepped down upon the firm ground, than I
plainly saw it was a terrible earthquake ; for the ground I
stood on shook three times at about eight minutes' dis-
tance, with three such shocks as would have overturned
the strongest building that could be supposed to have stood
on the earth, and a great piece of the top of a rock, which
stood about half a mile frome me, next the sea, fell down,
with such a terrible noise as I never heard in all my life. I
perceived also the very sea was put into violent motion by
it; and I believe the shocks were stronger under the water
than on the island.
I was so much amazed with the thing itself, having
never felt the like, nor discoursed with any one that had,
that I was like one dead or stupified ; and the motion of the
earth made my stomach sick, like one that was tossed at
sea; but the noise of the falling of the rock awaked me, as
it were, and rousing me from the stupified condition I was
in, filled me with horror, and I thought of nothing then
but the hill falling upon my tent and all my household
goods, and burying all at once; and this sunk my very
soul within me a second time.
After the third shock was over, and I felt no more for some
time, I began to take courage; and yet I had not heart enough
to go over my wall again, for fear of being buried alive, but
sat still upon the ground greatly cast down and disconsolate,
not knowing what to do. All this while, I had not the
least serious religious thought ; nothing but the com-
mon "Lord have mercy upon me !" and when it was over,
that went away too.
While I sat thus, I found the air overcast, and grow
cloudy, as if it would rain ; soon after that, the wind arose
by little and little, so that in less than half an hour it blew

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

& most dreadful hurricane: the sea was, all on a sudden,
covered over with foam and froth; the shore was covered
with the breach of the water; the trees were torn up by
the roots; and a terrible storm it was. This held about
three hours, and then began to abate; and in two hours
more it was quite calm, and began to rain very hard. All
this while I sat upon the ground, very much terrified and
dejected; when on a sudden it came into my thoughts,
that these winds and rain being the consequences of the
earthquake, the earthquake itself was spent and over, and
I might venture into my cave again. With this thought,
my spirits began to revive; and the rain also helping to
persuade me, I went in and sat down in my tent; but the
rain was so violent, that my tent was ready to be beaten
down with it; and I was forced to go into my cave, though
very much afraid and uneasy, for fear it should fall on my
head. This violent rain forced me to a new work, viz., to
cut a hole through my new fortification, like a sink, to let
the water go out, which would else have flooded my cave.
After I had been in my cave for some time, and found still
no more shocks of the earthquake follow, I began to be
more composed. And now to support my spirits, which
indeed wanted it very much, I went to my little store, and
took a small sup of rum; which, however, I did then and
always very sparingly, knowing I could have no more
when that was gone. It continued raining all that night,
and great part of the next day, so that I could not stir
abroad; but my mind being more composed, I began to
think of what I had best do; concluding, that if the island
was subject to these earthquakes, there would be no living
for me in a cave, but I must consider of building a little
hut in an open place, which I might surround with a wall,
as I had done here, and so make myself secure from wild
beasts or men; for I concluded if I stayed where I was, I
should certainly, one time or other, be buried alive.
With these thoughts, I resolved to remove my tent from
the place where it now stood, which was just under the